Interview with Alice Detre (née Liverton) Head of Events and Sponsorships, EY UK and Ireland

Interview with Alice Detre (née Liverton)
Head of Events and Sponsorships, EY UK and Ireland

1. Where are you now? Tell us about your role 

I'm currently Head of Events and Sponsorships at the UK and Ireland arm of EY, which is where I have been pretty much since I left RPC.

As part of the Brand, Marketing and Communications function, I am responsible for delivering major events for our people and our clients, as well as the main corporate sponsorships we have, most notably with Tate. Tate is a family of four art galleries in London, Liverpool and Cornwall known as Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?

Huge variety which I love. I run a team of nine permanent members of staff, topped up by various freelancers and contractors, so a lot of my time is spent on managing those people.

I'm currently working on EY's Entrepreneur of the Year programme, which has involved devising and presenting the strategy to the partners for how we would run the community aspect of the programme, for example our Entrepreneurial Retreat.

I spend a lot of time working with Tate on how best to leverage our sponsorship agreement with them and find this fascinating – it is one of the main reasons I took this role so a typical meeting on this might be working with my colleagues in Marketing to agree KPIs for our next activation.

Also, as a firm regulated by the FCA, compliance is critical, so I work very closely with our regulatory team.

Throughout your career – what are your highlights?

I started out in the legal sector at Taylor Wessing and was heavily involved with their sponsorship programme. I helped to set up their National Portrait Gallery Photographic Portrait Prize, which is still going strong today.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel with my roles and have always loved this. One of my fave memories  is probably an RPC one, to be honest. And it was being involved in launching three new offices in under a year back in 2012, welcoming colleagues in Bristol, Hong Kong and Singapore.

I still have a very clear memory of looking out over the Hong Kong skyline, watching clients enjoying themselves and being very proud of what we'd achieved.

What are you passionate about outside of work?

I have two young children – Rufus and Florence – and they are my real passion outside work. As soon as I finish for the day, I race down to see what the kids are up to, help tire them out, and then get some food inside them.

I live with my family on the edge of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire, so we spend a lot of time out and about in the countryside, visiting farm shops and so on.

What were the most valuable lessons you learnt while at RPC that has helped you in your current role?

The importance of bringing the brand to life and giving the brand – and the people who represent the brand – personality. 

We had licence to deliver campaigns and ideas which imbued a sense of fun, like when we created our own branded Law Firm of the Beer for a client party to celebrate winning the top gong at The Lawyer Awards.

What is your favourite RPC memory?

There are so many – I look back at my time with RPC with enormous fondness. Partners dressed as Sumo wrestlers, singing in the choir at Christmas in the atrium of TBH, and so on. RPC has such a tremendous community of people.

Also, knowing all the Partners on a first-name basis was unique – those relationships help you to understand people's businesses and objectives.
But probably my favourite memory is the moment – during a lunch with the team in the Café – that Nicola Miller told me she had found me a husband.

As it turned out she had found my Mr Right, and Tom and I were married 18 months later…

What do you miss most about RPC?

The closeness of the relationships, which is partly a result of the size of the firm. And also, everyone's can-do attitude of driving forward together.

What does the future hold for you – if we spoke again in a year, what would you like to have achieved?

Well, I've only been back for 10 weeks after maternity leave, so I'm grappling with being a working parent of two children. So, hopefully making sure that everyone is thriving, both at home and at work, and achieving the right balance.

From a project point of view, we are about to open EY's 10th exhibition at Tate. It's Cezanne. So, bringing that to life for our clients and people is a major objective right now.