Tove Okunniwa MBE
BA Business Administration, 1988
DIRECTOR OF GROUP PARTNERSHIPS, BBC
“I don’t think I would’ve ever ended up in the BBC if it hadn’t been for my degree.”
Director of Group Partnerships at the BBC, Tove has forged a long career at organisations she felt passionate about, but credits the foundation of her success to what she learnt at Thames Polytechnic.
After graduation, she remembers her classmate’s appreciation of the skills the course gave them: “We’d got a really good grounding in the discipline of marketing and we could compete against anybody in terms of getting jobs within the marketing field. We knew our stuff and we knew that we could contribute.”
From a graduate position at the London Symphony Orchestra Tove went on to spend 10 years at the BBC culminating as Head of Marketing for BBC Sport. From there she became CEO of London Sport, where her role was to make London the most active city in the world.
Presentation and communication skills have proved particularly key in her career, she says, but the all-round approach to marketing was second to none.
“It was a brilliant course”, she recalls. “It introduced me to the discipline that has been my career. Everything that I’ve done since was a result of having done that degree.”
In June 2021 it was announced that Tove would be awarded an MBE for Services to Sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Tove Okunniwa MBE
BA Business Administration, 1988
DIRECTOR OF GROUP PARTNERSHIPS, BBC
“I don’t think I would’ve ever ended up in the BBC if it hadn’t been for my degree.”
Director of Group Partnerships at the BBC, Tove has forged a long career at organisations she felt passionate about, but credits the foundation of her success to what she learnt at Thames Polytechnic.
After graduation, she remembers her classmate’s appreciation of the skills the course gave them: “We’d got a really good grounding in the discipline of marketing and we could compete against anybody in terms of getting jobs within the marketing field. We knew our stuff and we knew that we could contribute.”
From a graduate position at the London Symphony Orchestra Tove went on to spend 10 years at the BBC culminating as Head of Marketing for BBC Sport. From there she became CEO of London Sport, where her role was to make London the most active city in the world.
Presentation and communication skills have proved particularly key in her career, she says, but the all-round approach to marketing was second to none.
“It was a brilliant course”, she recalls. “It introduced me to the discipline that has been my career. Everything that I’ve done since was a result of having done that degree.”
In June 2021 it was announced that Tove would be awarded an MBE for Services to Sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
