SPOTLIGHT: MELODY KHODAVERDIAN
VP, Partnerships, Events, TIME
Melody Khodaverdian is an ambitious leader with a genuine passion for helping organizations reach and surpass their strategic revenue and business development goals. As a seasoned alum of some of the world’s biggest media brands & non-profits, she specializes in building partnerships’ strategy, new revenue generation streams and an entrepreneurial approach to business development.
She recently launched her own consulting business helping organizations to just that. Prior to this, she was the Chief Business Development Officer at the Shed, and the Head of Partnerships for Conde Nast’s experiential portfolio, where she spearheaded revenue strategy for 20+ of Condé Nast’s Tentpole Editorial Events including Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party, The New Yorker Festival, the Teen Vogue Summit, Vogue Met Gala, & Glamour’s Woman of the Year. Prior to joining Conde Nast, she spent 4 years at Forbes Media, leading the company’s aggressive revenue goals for their live events portfolio, working on 40+ global events and building the business from the ground up.
Philanthropy and community service is paramount to her life. She is the former volunteer Co-Chair of TEDxToronto, Canada’s largest TEDx event, serves as a Volunteer Crisis Counselor at Crisis Text Line, and is currently spearheading the “Seniors Buddy Program” matching volunteers with seniors in senior homes across the city, to help combat the pressing issue of senior isolation. She ran the NYC Marathon twice, raising money for a pediatric cancer charity close to her heart, Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
When she’s not talking partnerships, you can find her spending time with her friends & family and trying to make her grandmother proud, by attempting her Armenian recipes.
NYWICI WANTS TO KNOW:
Tell me about the first job you’ve ever held.
I was a swimming instructor and lifeguard all throughout high school! I taught swimming lessons to babies and their parents, and it was one of my favorite jobs I’ve held 🙂
What energizes and drains you when you’re at work?
Positivity and focusing on all we have accomplished as a team energizes me. Sometimes we get caught up in the day to day and it’s important to take a step back and be proud of what we have accomplished and the bigger picture of what we’re hoping to do.
What’s your process for turning a bad day into a good one?
I always try to hold perspective. A quick reset involves a walk, removing myself from my current environment and thinking if the issue at hand matters in the grand scheme of things, always does the trick.
Why NYWICI?
It’s very important to me to give back to the generation coming after us. I was lucky enough to have had some incredible mentors and opportunities and it means a lot to me to be able to pay that forward.