Catherine Hawkins
Founder
Think!Sponsorship was founded and is wholly owned by Cat Hawkins. Cat is a commercial specialist with over 20 years of experience in the sales and sponsorship sector. She has worked with a broad range of clients across the sport, culture, entertainment, environmental, local government & member sectors on start-up ideas through to the execution and sale of large- scale sponsorship rights (£5,000 - £5,000,000) and the creation of a number of impactful partnerships.
Cat is first and foremost a salesperson, and leads all our brand partnerships valuation work using our proprietary pricing model, combined with her own sales acumen and market knowledge, alongside deal benchmarks information via our Find!Sponsorship tool.
In 2017 Cat created the ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate which accredits sponsorship practitioners in best-practice sales techniques and if fast-becoming an industry standard qualification. The course is delivered in partnership with the European Sponsorship Association (the governing body for sponsorship in Europe) with the goal of raising sponsorship sales professionalism across the industry. Cat has trained over 1,500 sponsorship sales professionals across her career to date both through this course, and via the Sell!Your Sponsorship Workshop series, which delivers specific skills-based learning to practitioners of all abilities (live, online and on demand).
Cat was recruited to the National Parks Partnership (NPP) board as a Non-Executive Director in 2015 – an entity specifically created to represent the commercial interests of all 15 National Parks in the UK for the first time in their history. In this capacity—and now as Chair of this board—she has helped to create a sustainable commercial strategy, identified prospects and generated introductions, recruited talent and helped NPP to evolve their commercial structure. The National Parks enjoy seven figure partnerships with Santander, BMW (the award winning “Recharge in Nature” project) & Estee Lauder.
Cat is co-founder of the Women in Sponsorship networking group (a group set up and designed to support the professional development of women working within the sector) and she also mentors young sponsorship professionals. Cat became a judge for the UK Sponsorship Awards in 2018 specifically reviewing young talent in relation to The Barrie Gill Award for Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive. She is a regular contributor to conferences and industry events across Europe on sponsorship trends and investment patterns and is an experienced moderator and facilitator.
In March 2023 Catherine was awarded an inaugural ESA Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the sponsorship sector.
Catherine is a keen walker, a devoted – and currently ecstatic - Ipswich Town FC fan (IFKYK!), a UK Athletics Level 3 Field Official and a Trustee of the Essex Wildlife Trust. She is a regular theatre-goer.
