Head of Marketing at Manchester Airport supports Chinese Contemporary Art

The Head of Marketing at Manchester Airport has shown his support for Chinese contemporary art and taken up a position as Trustee at its Manchester centre.  

Patrick Alexander, head of marketing at Manchester Airport, has joined the board of CFCCA as a trustee, taking up his position with immediate effect. 

He has headed up the marketing team at the UK’s third biggest airport for three years and will bring a wealth of advice and counsel to the Manchester based cultural centre. Prior to his current role he has held a variety of positions with Manchester Airports Group (MAG) since 2005. He will retain his current role as head of marketing at Manchester Airport alongside his CFCCA trustee role. 

Head of Marketing at Manchester Airport, Patrick Alexander

On his appointment Patrick (left) said:

“I am thrilled to be joining the board and look forward to providing not only marketing expertise, but also sharing my knowledge and insight from working closely with China in recent years.

“The airport continues to grow its relationships with China through our route development, activity with the Chinese diaspora and reaching out through Weibo and WeChat. I look forward to enhancing these relationships further through working with the team at CFCCA.”

Manchester Airport currently has 28m passengers, 220 destinations and 70 airlines. In recent years it has fostered strong links with China through the launch of direct services to Beijing and Hong Kong. The airport is also closely associated with the Manchester-China forum and has recently appointed a Mandarin speaker to the marketing team to run Chinese social media channels Weibo and WeChat. 

The airport is the UK’s global gateway in the North, with a host of routes that in the UK can only also be found in London. These include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Muscat, Houston and Singapore. Later in the year routes to Mumbai and Addis Ababa will also launch with Jet Airways and Ethiopian Airlines respectively. 

Peter Mearns, Chair of CFCCA’s Board said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Patrick to the CFCCA Board. As the national lead in exploring Chinese contemporary culture,  Patrick’s experience, expertise and knowledge of China will be an invaluable source of support for CFCCA going forwards.” 

CFCCA aims to make Chinese contemporary art and visual culture accessible to everyone through exhibitions, events, shop, artist residencies, festivals, engagement programmes and research forums. 

Its exhibitions are set across intimate gallery spaces, where visitors get up close and personal with the artworks on display. It has a proud 30-year history of UK ‘first’ solo exhibitions, featuring exceptional emerging artists that go on to achieve international acclaim. Its unique events programme explores different aspects of its exhibitions and includes practical workshops, film screenings, informal talks and performances. 

Located on Thomas Street in the heart of Manchester’s creative Northern Quarter people can visit its free exhibitions Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm (closed on Mondays).