Presenter
Fredrick Wodin
Director, Corporate Relations, New York City Ballet
With broad experience across the creative, corporate, agency and not-for-profit sectors, Fredrick Wodin brings his unique perspective to bear in generating corporate sponsorship and philanthropic support for New York City Ballet’s artistic mission, performances, touring and other programs.
Fredrick began his professional life as a classical ballet dancer and, after receiving an Economics degree and a Masters in Business Administration, he transitioned to his second career in marketing and communications, working at global public relations agency, Burson-Marsteller, focusing on crisis management communications for companies that included TWA, Solomon Brothers and Perrier.
Afterward, over twelve years as Director of Global Sponsorships at Merrill Lynch, Fredrick oversaw numerous programs designed to meet that company’s brand and business interests. These included projects such as the traveling exhibition, Cultures of Creativity: The Centennial Exhibition of The Nobel Prize, created by the Nobel Foundation, Stockholm; Leonardo’s Codex Leicester at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; the New York City Ballet’s three-week season in Paris; The Chelsea Flower Show in London; Art Nouveau at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Kirov Opera and Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City; Points of Departure at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Nam June Paik at The Guggenheim Museum in New York; Warhol at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s tour to Japan; Matisse Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and many others. Fredrick also oversaw Merrill Lynch’s relationships with the New York City Department of Education, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team and dozens of other cultural institutions around the world.
Fredrick later headed the sponsorship and planning team at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. In that role, he was responsible for the dozen or so relationships that Lincoln Center held with corporations including Altria, American Express, The Bank of New York, Bloomberg, Continental, Fleet, Pepsi, UBS and Verizon, among others.
In business for himself from 2004-2012, Fredrick worked as a consultant to the corporate and not-for-profit sectors on all aspects of the dynamic, valuable and underappreciated relationship between the two. His client list included America Now + Here; amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research; Aspen Music Festival; Bank of America; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Clinton Global Initiative, Dallas Museum of Art; Finnish Cultural Institute; Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.; Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; the New Museum of Contemporary Art; Rosie’s Broadway Kids; TIAA-CREF and United States Artists.
For nearly four years, Fredrick has served as the Director of Corporate Relations for New York City Ballet, where the programs conceived, formulated and led by him are designed to benefit both the Company and its partners. In that time, the Company’s support from the corporate sector has grown by 200% and has included significant relationships with companies including Travelers, Vacheron Constantin, MasterCard, Cole Haan, Ruinart Champagne, Harry Winston, Accenture, Ladurée and Bonpoint, among others, including several multi-year partnerships for the first time in its history.
Success has come from an ability to understand each side’s strengths and limitations relevant to the philanthropic, brand, business and constituent needs of each funder, as well as an appreciation and respect for the unique nature of New York City Ballet, its various assets, the ability to support its partners’ interests and the flexibility and willingness to work through cultural and other differences that arise when there is an effort to link interests.
Fredrick currently lives in Manhattan with his wife, Linda, and two teenage daughters, Ella and Tess.
