What is your background?

I worked for a long time in journalism. I started off as a reporter - my first job was a tiny little rural newspaper in the States. I worked for CNN's financial news division in various guises for about 13 years. I covered global financial markets, the Federal Reserve board, interest rates, Wall Street, mergers and acquisitions, the boom of the investor business and the explosion in the markets and in personal finance, which was a big boon to television coverage of the markets. During the '80s and '90s it was like watching sport. You'd sit and watch the ticker and you'd watch the stocks go up and up and up. My last role was managing editor of Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong.

How did you come from finance to what you're doing now?

There was a series of large media mergers, not unlike what's been happening here in Australia in the last year or so. One of them was AOL's takeover of Time Warner. Time Warner had bought CNN about five years prior at the absolute height of the dotcom frenzy. As a result of that merger there was a wave of layoffs around the world. I was one of the lucky victims I suppose. Everybody who sits behind a desk has a dream of having the golden handshake and the opportunity to take some time off and travel. I looked around the world and Sydney was my last stop before going back to Hong Kong. It was a very warm, welcoming place so I decided I was just going to move here. I launched a business producing events, which was called Art After Dark. I had an interest in the arts and thought it was something worthwhile to pursue while I had some time on my hands. As things often happen in life, one thing leads to another, not necessarily always intentionally. I saw this opportunity at the festival to continue in that area, bringing business nous with an interest in and an appreciation of the value of art, both in a social and corporate context.

How long have you been with the festival?

This is my second festival, so 18 months. I've really jumped into the deep end. And a lot of it was quite new to me. I'd been in Sydney a couple of years, finding my way around and hadn't really been involved in the economy. It was a terrific opportunity for me personally to get to know a lot of business people and a lot of politicians. The Sydney Festival sits in a very interesting place at the heart of Sydney. It's owned by the city [Sydney Council], the state and Channel Nine, which are the three principal sponsors. It's where business and art and government meet.

Is there a tension there?

I wouldn't call it a tension. The nexus is what drives both the commercial and artistic realities of the festival. Sydney Festival is by far the most commercial of all the other Australian arts festivals. The festival had a $12 million turnover last year. We get about $3 million-plus from the state and we raised about $4 million from ticket sales and the rest came from sponsorship, both direct cash and in kind support. When you look at the overall picture we're raising in the area of $6 million in cash and in kind support. Last year was the biggest the festival ever had. The festival has taken the step of becoming wider and more accessible to a broader audience. A lot of that has to do with the players sitting around the table. The city is obviously interested in putting on the best event which reaches the biggest audience that it can while still being in the overall framework of an arts festival. And the state has a similar mandate. All contributors, big or small, are looking for some kind of return on their investment, whether it's in hard benefits you can deliver to a sponsor or contributing to the life and growth of a city and delivering benefits to its citizens.

Do you target events around the sponsor?

It's always a balance. At the end of the day, it's an arts organisation, not a commercial organisation and the decisions that are taken are essentially artistic decisions not commercial decisions. There is a real commercial sense in what will sell tickets and be interesting to sponsors.

Have you had any disasters?

Arts sponsorship in Australia has not been a big part of the marketing dollar. Personalities change and people will tend to be very close and then drop off at the end. We've been very successful in retention between last year and this year. One or two sponsors [dropped off], one of which was the Cross City Tunnel [now in receivership] and the other one was [insurance firm] Marsh, which took a slightly different direction in marketing and a global restructuring.

What do you love about your job?

In a funny way, this ties back to my previous job when I used to be a television producer for nightly shows. We'd have this massive build up over 12 hours and then bang, you do the show. It builds up over 12 months and there's still that sense of excitement, the adrenalin rush that goes with putting something on. This has a lot of moving parts. It's very impressive to be able to put something on an annual basis. There are lots of very talented people in the field.