Susan Finnegan

Commercial Director

Susan is an award winning professional and key member of the team behind Liverpool’s 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations and the Eurovision Song Contest Visitor Experience, Liverpool 2024 – the most successful ever staged.

Susan is a place-making professional, developing and driving destination strategy, creativity, and innovation, identifying untapped growth markets, and securing global strategic brand partnerships to accelerate Liverpool’s destination positioning and economic growth through the visitor economy.

Formerly an events management professional, organising events for audiences up to 300,000, Susan has over 22 years’ experience working with over two hundred high profile brands, global artists, musicians, and athletes, forming successful commercial partnerships, and generating over £8m for public sector.

In 2017, during an overseas visit to Sweden to secure the Tall Ships Regatta for the city’s 10-year European Capital of Culture Ceremony, Susan developed the relationship with the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux and French Government, securing Liverpool’s place as the exclusive UK host of the Bordeaux Fete le Vin, alongside sister cities of Bordeaux, Brussels, Quebec, and Hong Kong.

This relationship has gone from strength to strength evolving into Taste Liverpool. Drink Bordeaux, profiling the venues and people behind the city’s hospitality sector, celebrating a sector revolution. The festival was created to directly support the hard-hit hospitality sector in its post-pandemic recovery while supporting Bordeaux Wine Growers to tap into new markets, discover new trade opportunities and sustain & grow export of the world’s finest wine – Bordeaux.

Tapping into the growing trend of gastronomy tourism, Liverpool’s hospitality sector is now attracting the attention of visitors, investors, and media, and was recently named Time Out’s 11TH Best City in the World for food. With support from the public and private sector.
Following Liverpool’s successful Eurovision Song Contest Host City bid, Susan was Chair and Lead of the Eurovision Host City Visitor Experience, working together with the private sector to ensure from the moment visitors arrive in the city, to the moment they leave, their experience was second to none. The strategic visitor experience model developed by Susan has been heralded as a national exemplarin shaping the delivery of major events of national and international significance, maximising social and economic impacts, perception of place, and visitor destination sentiment.

Working with the hotels, venues, visitor attractions, transport operators, major gateways and tourism/estate stakeholders, Susan and her team ensured visitors were immersed in an experiential Eurovision city playground. Additionally, Susan and the team strategically supported the hospitality sector to recruit to the 2,000 + current vacancies in preparation for Eurovision and beyond, showcasing the sector as an attractive and integral career choice to support the growth of the visitor economy.

The visitor economy makes up almost 50% of Liverpool’s economy (47% business rates) and therefore it is strategically, critically important to support this thriving sector, maximising the opportunity Eurovision and other major international events present.

Inward investment is a further opportunity Susan and her team work to unlock and capitalise to re-balance the economy, showcasing the city’s other competitive value propositions, highlighting Liverpool as a great place to work, live, visit and study.

In line with the national shift in the Destination Management Organisation (DMO) landscape, and Visit England (LVEP) accreditation, Susan led on business transformation in partnership with the LCR Combined Authority, bringing all LCR local authorities together to deliver a new Tourism model, a shared single vision to grow the visitor economy, and the implementation of a new public-private sector Board, chaired by Lord Hall, former Director-General, BBC. The new model will formally launch in Q1 2025.

Key Achievements

• Commercial Director & Head of Visitor Experience, Eurovision Song Contest 2023
• Securing sponsorships and strategic partnerships including (not limited to), Arriva, GREAT, Very, HSBC, Mastercard, British Council, L’Oréal, Stagecoach, Transpennine Express, Avanti, Diageo, Bailey’s, Brewdog, Vins de Bordeaux, Merseyrail, Expedia, Booking.com, TikTok, Vans, BBC, Global, Bauer Media Group, Redbull, Adidas, Patagonia, University of Liverpool, Deloitte, KPMG, MOET
• Head of Commercial and Marketing for the city’s largest, high-profile events and festivals attracting over 4m visitors, including Royal de Luxe Giant Spectacular, Cunard’s 175th ‘Three Queen’s’ anniversary celebrations, Bordeaux Fete du Vin, Tall Ships Races, River of Light, Liverpool 2018 10 Year ECOC2008 Anniversary, HUB Action Sports & Music Festival, Liverpool International Music Festival amongst others – a combined audience of 20m visitors and economic impact of £200m+.
• Ministry of Sound Nescafe Global Tour and Lynx Extended Replay, Ibiza
• Securing Liverpool's 'Guest City Destination Takeover' at the Bordeaux Fete le Vin 2024; the largest overseas international destination activation in a key target visitor market. This insight-driven campaign will be the first activation of its kind delivered by the new model to 600,000 visitors.
• Board member, Liverpool Visitor Economy Network (LVEN) | Board member, Club Liverpool | former Director, Liverpool Waterfront Business Partnership (2016-2019) | TMI member | Chair, Taste Liverpool Board | Core Cities DMO representative
• In her role as former Acting Head of Visitor Economy, Susan held the primary relationships with the Chief Executives of Visit England and Visit Britain, UK Inbound, Tourism Management EOs of VB, VE, UK Inbound and TMI
• Royal de Luxe, Liverpool’s Dream Giant Spectacular with Lidl 2018, generating £180,000 in revenue
• Commercial Director, British Style Collective 2017
• Event & Commercial Manager, HUB Festival, Action Sports, and Music Festival 2006-2011 (NOEA Best Outdoor UK Event 2011)
• Author; Culture Liverpool's Brand Ethics policy
• Author; Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council's Commercial Strategy
• Creative Director & Event Manager; HUB Action Sports and Music Festival, UK’s largest free action sports and music festival, influencing in the development of three permanent city skateparks
• Development and implementation of Culture Liverpool's award-winning Commercial Team operating on an invest-to-earn basis
• Author; ‘Liverpool – Local Reach. National Appeal. A Global Stage’
• Former Ambassador; ‘I Am the Code;’ global African tech movement, teaching 1million young girls and women from disadvantaged backgrounds how to code by 2030, advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals | founded by tech entrepreneur Lady Mariéme Jamme, BBC’s Top 100 Women.
• 15+ industry awards inc Drum Awards Best UK Visitor Experience (Eurovision 2023), Merseyside Women of the Year 2023 (Eurovision 2023), NOEA Best Outdoor Public Event of the Year (HUB Action Sports & Music Festival), Access All Areas https://merseysidewomenoftheyear.co.uk/news/fpc-celebrates-the-women-behind-liverpools-eurovision-year/