Vice President, Corporate Partnerships

Chicago Blackhawks•Chicago, IL

17h•Onsite

About The Position

The Vice President, Corporate Partnerships will be responsible for building and implementing end-to-end sponsorship strategies that drive outsized results for partners and the Chicago Blackhawks. This role will lead the design, planning, budgeting, management, and optimization of a multi-million-dollar P&L while working cross-functionally to realize positive financial and brand outcomes across the enterprise. You will be responsible for materially growing annual revenue, managing a high-performing team, improving processes, and ensuring we are continuously pushing the industry forward. Reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), this role serves as a key driver of the organization's unified, brand-first commercial strategy, representing Corporate Partnerships.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree from accredited university in a relevant or complementary field.
10-12+ years of professional sports and entertainment experience, including demonstrated success in a leadership corporate partnership sales role
Proven track record of driving outsized revenue growth, profitability, and brand results on a global scale with experience managing multi-million-dollar budgets, P&Ls, annual plans, forecasting, and accurate financial projections
Minimum 5+ years leading, coaching, and developing high-performing sales and service teams with demonstrated success evolving the structure, process, and culture to drive business growth
Strong business acumen, analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to leverage data, analytics, and AI-driven tools to inform strategy and performance
Exceptional polish and effectiveness in communication, negotiation, relationship-building, and collaboration across diverse stakeholders
Creative, strategic, and solution-oriented leader with an org-first mentality who can develop partnerships that benefit the team, brand, partners, and fans
A willingness to embrace adversity and maintain positive culture through periods of organizational transformation; ability to lead others through change, manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-performance environment
Ability to build and maintain strong relationships across all levels of a dynamic, matrixed organization and the broader sports and entertainment industry; leveraging and expanding external networks to collaboratively develop programs that drive incremental revenue
Demonstrates our organizational values: integrity, curiosity, empathy, collaboration, and originality

Responsibilities

Develop and lead a long-term revenue plan for the Chicago Blackhawks and Blackhawks Ice Center and work cross functionally to maximize revenue for the United Center, 1901 Project, and future development opportunities.
Build and execute the strategic direction for a high-performing Corporate Partnerships team, including annual planning, budgeting, reporting, process optimization, performance management, and talent development.
Evolve key functional drivers including prospecting, category analysis, market approach, proposal creation, asset development, deal structuring, sales, negotiation, relationship management, and retention.
Ensure alignment with and advance the CRO’s enterprise-wide commercial strategy with a brand-first, revenue-always mindset.
Lead a process to thoroughly understand partner needs and objectives to create and deploy compelling packages that align with mutual goals.
Ideate and create unique activations that maximize engagement and return while benefitting the fan experience.
Lead and inspire a high-performing team within Corporate Partnership Sales, Account Management, Strategy and Operations to ensure continuous alignment, engagement, and performance.
Set clear expectations, provide ongoing feedback, and foster development.
Encourage collaboration, innovation, and accountability within the team to achieve peak results and maintain a positive work environment.
Utilize data, analytics, and emerging technologies (including AI) to inform partnership strategy, pricing, and performance tracking.
Establish and enforce commercial governance, contract negotiation standards, and compliance with league, legal, and internal policy requirements.
Build and maintain strong working relationships across Wirtz Corporation, United Center, 1901 Project, Chicago Bulls, CHSN, affiliate teams, and other key partners to align Corporate Partnerships strategy with enterprise-wide commercial and campus-wide objectives.