John Godfrey graduated from the New Zealand Drama School and later achieved a Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration in Adelaide, South Australia.  He has worked in festival and theatre management - as Programme Director of Wellington’s Summer City; Administrator and a co-founder of the Unley Youth Theatre; General Manager of  the Riverina Trucking Company, Wagga Wagga;  and Business Manager of the Sydney Festival.

In 1989 John added the responsibility of managing the Sydney Festival’s sponsorship team to the business management role. He was responsible for raising around one third of the festival’s income annually from a range of sponsorship and corporate relationships.  In 1992 he was invited to be the Edinburgh International Festival’s first Development Director and to establish their Development Office, raising in excess of £1M annually during his three year tenure. He moved to London in 1995, where he was involved in founding a charity for people living with HIV/Aids and became General Manager of the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park.

After ayear living in Spain John returned to Edinburgh to manage Edinburgh University’s £20M capital fundraising programme for a new medical research institute.  Subsequently he was appointed to run a £5M capital fundraising programme for Napier University’s new business school campus.

In 2004 he completed a MSc programme with a dissertation on business support for the arts and founded his own consultancy, Artful Fundraising.  He is undertaking further research into festival sponsorship as an associate with the Centre for Festival and Event Management, Napier University in Edinburgh.

Recent presentations include the ADAPE International Conference, Auckland 2006; and for the Institute of Fundraising at their North-West Conference 2005 and 2006, Scotland Conference 2005 and 2006 and in Wales in 2006.

Brakeley’s clients for whom John has worked include the National Library of Scotland and University of Stirling.