By Business & Finance 
Jamie Macken, Deputy Managing Director at Core Sponsorship
Jamie Macken, Deputy Managing Director at Core Sponsorship takes on the Business & Finance 60-second interview challenge.
Q. What was your first job? Researcher on the Eamon Dunphy Breakfast Show, Newstalk. Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date? On a personal level, it’s definitely my amazing wife and two fantastic children. From a work perspective, it has to be building Core Sponsorship into a market leader. We recently launched the National Sponsorship Index, which is Ireland’s first ever benchmark for sponsorship effectiveness, and the result of three years of development, testing and analysis. By pinpointing where sponsorship is delivering for a brand and providing clarity on how commercial impacts can be enhanced and maximised, the NSI will empower better and more commercially impactful decisions within the Irish sponsorship industry. Q. In three words or fewer, how do you define success? Happy clients. Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? To hire people smarter than you. I’ve always found it easy! Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? I don’t need to. Core already has a brilliant culture which focuses on collaboration and creativity – It’s a great motivator. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for the day, who would it be and why? Any of our clients. So, I could see, from their perspective, how we can continue to improve. Q. How do you relax? Running. Cycling. Cooking. Kids. Q. What’s your motto? I think it is summed up by this quote: ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.’ Q. What are your aspirations for the future of your business? To continue to expand the possibilities of what brands can achieve with sponsorship. We will do this by continuing to provide first-to-market products and services that fuel sponsorship decision making.
Core already has a brilliant culture which focuses on collaboration and creativity – It’s a great motivator.
