As Head of Corporate Development & Enterprise at the Southbank Centre, Khadeen O’Donnell is one of London’s leading professionals working in sponsorship and brand activation for the arts. It also gives her a massive sense of pride to be able to support two lifelong passions through her work: dance and the arts.
This passion initially caught flame in her hometown of Manchester, where she was a regular dancer at the seminal Hacienda nightclub. She then went on to study music production and sound engineering before embarking on a BA Hons in Music at the University of Liverpool.
On moving to London ten years ago, Khadeen initially worked in media intelligence sales where she successfully signed up clients like Diageo, Unilever, Cadbury and ASOS.
Determined to pursue an ambition to fuse her love for business and the creative sector, Khadeen was able to transition into the arts by accepting a role at the Southbank Centre, where she’s since been promoted to head of the department.
During the past four years at the Southbank Centre, Khadeen has worked with clients as diverse as Heineken, Adidas and BMW, signing and overseeing key accounts like MasterCard, which resulted in Fashion Undressed – a series of bespoke fashion-focused activations including catwalk shows and events at the Royal Festival Hall. One of the most high-profile campaigns involved working with the award-winning artist Alex Chinneck for Vauxhall, which resulted in coverage on BBC1 and many other media outlets.
In her spare time, Khadeen loves exploring new cities, going to gigs and galleries, and making the most of the abundance of cool things to do in the greatest city in the world.
Having recently been asked to join the board of b.supreme, the UK’s only female street dancing festival, Khadeen’s now relishing the opportunity to help the charity develop their sponsorship strategy – and, who knows, you might even see her busting a few moves.