Jonathan Gee

Jonathan has 40 years’ experience of sponsorship, corporate hospitality, advertising, marketing and public relations. He founded the UK’s first and only magazine for our industry, Sponsorship News, in 1982 and edited and published the title for over 27 years before transferring its ownership to Catherine Hawkins’ Communicate Sport organisation in 2009 (see www.sponsorshipnews.com). Jonathan’s publishing house, Charterhouse Business Publications, also published the first UK corporate hospitality magazine, Hospitality & Entertainment, for 13 years. Jonathan’s long experience of sponsorship and corporate hospitality has given him a unique perspective on all aspects of our business. He has particular in-depth expertise in motorsport and has worked with well-known drivers such as John Surtees OBE and Mike Hailwood MBE and, more recently, Britain’s Dan Wheldon who won both the famous Indianapolis 500 race and the IndyCar Series in 2005. In the 1970s and 1980s Jonathan worked on behalf of several F1 teams including Theodore Racing, Shadow Cars and Team Surtees. He helped to introduce Matchbox Toys to their iconic and highly-successful 1970s Formula Two sponsorship and was instrumental in the controversial début of Durex as an international motor racing sponsor. Other well-know brands with which Jonathan has worked include British Caledonian Airways, Smiths Crisps, Colman’s Mustard, GQ magazine and Wolfrace Wheels. In his earlier career, Jonathan worked for leading London advertising agency J Walter Thompson and, on the client side, for Unilever.

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