About Deborah Sanders

Deborah Sanders has worked in the international world of performing arts for over 30 years. Starting in New Zealand where she was born, she worked her way through all the backstage disciplines—lighting, sound, props and stage mechanics—experience that culminated in the role of Production and Lighting Manager on The Rocky Horror Show with international artists which toured NZ for six months. She became Acting Manager of Wellington’s State Opera House during an ownership transition when the venue hosted some of the biggest names in global entertainment.

Arriving in London she worked for a pop concert promoter co-ordinating American artists tours of the UK and Europe and promoting big concerts in major venues. The Chairman of The Duke of York’s Theatre, Sir Richard Attenborough, appointed her the theatre’s Manager, a position she held for almost 5 years, until she joined Trillion Pictures to produce a weekly rock concert in London venues for live European broadcast on the newly-established Sky Channel.

Moving to the US, she was appointed founding company manager at Santa Fe Stages, an international theatre festival in New Mexico, USA, from where Lotfi Mansouri later recruited her to San Francisco Opera where she managed many of the company’s top-level relationships with corporate and individual donors, board members, political figures and foreign diplomats, as well as visiting guest artists.

Moving back to Europe, Deborah became consultant to the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago in Italy for three seasons before joining Robert Gilder & Company as General Manager in 2004. She was recruited by IMG Artists in London in 2007 where she spent five years building and maintaining the careers of her own list of artists, a list she took to Rayfield Allied in September 2012 where she remained until December 2019.