The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) is delighted to announce the inaugural recipients of the ESA Fellowship.
On the day of the 2023 ESA Awards ceremony, celebrations started early for Delphine Baise, Catherine Hawkins, Peter Raymond and Paul Samuels after their recognition as the inaugural ESA Fellows.
The four will be honoured at tonight’s ceremony in London for their outstanding contribution to the sponsorship industry. Each will be granted lifetime individual membership of ESA, whose mission is to inspire, unite and grow a welcoming and diverse sponsorship industry.
ESA Chairman Andy Westlake said: “To mark ESA’s 35th anniversary we wanted to begin the process of recognising sponsorship leaders who are true standard-bearers for the industry. In December 2022 we asked our community to nominate deserving individuals who would be the first recipients of this brand new honour.
“I’m delighted that Delphine, Catherine, Peter and Paul have been selected as the inaugural ESA Fellows following a nomination by their peers and the approval of the ESA Board. Each of them has already left a lasting legacy, but this is far from complete as I’m sure they will continue to inspire future generations for many years to come!
“Tonight at the 2023 ESA Awards ceremony we will celebrate a wide range of exceptional work from the sponsorship industry right across Europe – standards that were set by our four inaugural ESA Fellows and their peers.”
Delphine Baise
Delphine Baise has built a strong experience in working on sponsorship projects in soccer, music, art and business within an international framework. She joined the bank ING in 2000 and has been a member of the communication management team for more than 15 years.
Specialising in sponsoring, events and brand activation, the campaigns she put in place with her team were regularly recognised at Belgian level and competitive at the ESA Awards. Her job is her passion and her values of authenticity, curiosity and excellence are driving all her energy to continue contributing to the growth of the industry in her country.
For seven years, Delphine was the President of the Sponsoring Expertise Centre of Union Belge des Annonceurs. Inspiring young talents, she is also a lecturer at IHECS (where she studied) in the Masters in Event Management. She is married with two daughters and daily makes her personal purpose come true – which is to let people experience moments of magic.
- Read our Q&A with Delphine Baise, ESA Fellow
Catherine Hawkins
As the Founder of Think!Sponsorship, Catherine has developed and delivered a range of networking, conference and training tools for the sponsorship industry that have serviced more than 7000 people in the past 20 years.
Outside of this Catherine is a commercial specialist working with a broad range of clients across the culture, entertainment, environmental, sports and charity sectors on start-up ideas through to the execution and sale of large-scale sponsorship rights. In 2016 Catherine became Course Director of the ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate, which accredits sponsorship practitioners in best-practice sales techniques and is fast becoming an industry standard qualification.
As Chairman of the National Parks Partnership (NPP) board, which represents all 15 UK National Parks, Catherine has helped to support the creation and delivery of a sustainable commercial strategy that includes exploring innovative and progressive income-generation opportunities including the award-winning ‘Revere’ programme.
Catherine is a judge for the UK Sponsorship Awards, specifically reviewing young talent in relation to The Barrie Gill Award for Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive, as well as co-founder of the Women in Sponsorship networking group. She is also a Trustee of the Essex Wildlife Trust – an enjoyable role that enables her to be hands-on in her home county of Essex!
- Read our Q&A with Catherine Hawkins, ESA Fellow
Peter Raymond
In creating the ESA Diploma, which he runs as Course Director, Peter Raymond has enabled more than 600 budding industry practitioners to attain the sponsorship industry’s only professional qualification.
Peter has worked for more than 35 years in sponsorship and sports marketing for numerous leading agencies and brands; most notably as Head of International Sponsorship at Orange. Previous projects included Castlemaine XXXX and the Australian Cricket and Rugby teams, the Nutrasweet/Flora London Marathons, Lucozade Sport’s strategic entry into sports sponsorship, the British Athletics sponsorship portfolio, the ‘Orange BAFTAs’, creation and implementation of ‘Orange Wednesdays’ and the ‘Orange Arrows’ F1 team.
In addition, Peter has been a consultant for Camelot, Panasonic, Michelin, Blackberry, BAFTA, Film London and the Crafts Council on a wide range of partnership-related projects and recently co-founded a boutique strategy consultancy called Vibrato.
- Read our Q&A with Peter Raymond, ESA Fellow
Paul Samuels
Paul Samuels, Executive Vice President for Global Partnerships at AEG Europe, is responsible for overseeing all sponsorship sales, partnership activation and premium seating across all AEG assets internationally, outside of the US – including The O2 in London and Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin, as well as festivals such as American Express presents BST Hyde Park and Luno presents All Points East.
Paul is also responsible for the Global Partnerships team across Asia with exciting new projects in development in Thailand, Japan and Korea. Paul joined AEG in 2007 from O2, where he worked as Head of Sponsorships.
It was here that he first encountered AEG Europe when he negotiated the naming rights for The O2, which is acknowledged as one of the most successful and iconic naming partnerships to date. The partnership re-defined the traditional corporate sponsorship as a huge customer engagement opportunity and, 15 years on, it continues to deliver ROI for O2 and AEG.
In his role at O2, Paul was also the major broker in sponsorship deals with Arsenal FC and the England rugby team. Paul left O2 in 2006 to serve as The Bonham Group’s CEO for Europe, subsequently overseeing the sale of the company to AEG Europe. In his current role at AEG Europe, he oversees a team of 100 people across Europe and APAC, negotiating partnerships across AEG’s assets.
Paul sits on the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Silver Clef Awards committee. He is also actively involved with the Speakers for Schools charity, as well as a mentor for the Ort Jump Start programme. On weekends, Paul can be found on the sidelines watching his three daughters playing football or ferrying them to and from their busy social engagements!
- Read our Q&A with Paul Samuels, ESA Fellow
