Meet the Team
Consuela Mckenzie
Managing Director
A successful company manager and creative business consultant for a diverse group of start up media businesses and established worldwide brands, Consuela began her career in 1997 as a talent coordinator seeking talent for recording contracts for a major worldwide label; quickly advancing to head up the recruitment and management for a new music consultancy serving the film, music, broadcast and advertising industries in the UK. Her first company management role came at just 20 years old whilst still at University.
Consuela's career has seen continuous, autonomous employment from the start, giving her a perfect environment for freedom of expression and creativity within the criteria of working toward business goals. She believes that paramount to achieving financial success and having a business stand out, it is essential to provide the floor for employers to listen and for employees to have the opportunity to move goalposts to create something more than a typical business model.
She created the first workspace geared toward predominantly media clients, growing this new slant on the serviced office business model from its embryo stage to managing turnovers of over £2m. During this time; music editing, designing, business consulting and music event production roles were added to the career pot.
"I believe variety and success in the business world go hand in hand, If you aren’t adaptable, stick with a classic business structure and idea” she says. “Success working in advancement and ever-changing environments needs flexibility. Push the envelope, but understand where a final product can generate large revenue. Lose the competition through innovation. It’s what makes the Unifunk approach unique and what we add to our clients' repertoire; business concepts, process and development."
After much success and many ethical years in the business and media world, Consuela founded a company built on the concept of giving back to the community through music and the arts, in events and other mixed media. Unifunk emerged; the brand has evolved to create projects with a nucleus in progressive thinking, alternative and counter-culture with a view to achieving mainstream success.
"Unifunk is a hub for varying media professionals to come together and create something purposeful."
Consuela travels around the globe frequently and is inspired by passion and creativity in music and the arts all over the world. She is an avid supporter and participator in the charitable sector.
Shahla Karkouti
Event Partner
Artist Shahla Karkouti is a UK events promoter, musician and PR extraordinaire. Her work has taken her far and wide and Shahla has extensive experience in producing wrap parties, premiere parties and press junkets for clients at film festivals in London, Cannes, Dubai, Toronto, Doha, Berlin.
Often donating a lot of her time and energy to charity work, Shahla started out at the age of 22 as the youngest selected trustee of a charity in UK history with IAC, a children’s Charity for children and teenagers physically affected by wars in the middle East. In Brazil, her good work went further into the NGO field, building schools in the slums of Rio while performing in venues across the region. In Dubai Shahla devised and implemented an art exchange project between the Middle East and Rio de Janeiro, maximising her contacts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Now back in London her passion for music takes centre stage. Being a musician she is often found working along-side respected industry names and has a gift to spot new talent and promotes new artists. As a regular events producer, Shahla is constantly on the scene putting on a wide array of nights from live world music events to warehouse parties with her team of like minded promoters.
Rivelino Lopes
Artist Relations
Rive holds background in cutting edge sportswear design consultancy, customer relationship management, event and music production as well as a natural ability for out of the box and strategic thinking. He first worked with Unifunk 2012 and joins us in 2013 on Artist relations. Rive garners a great understanding of a variety on music genres with exceptional knowledge of Hip Hop. He is also one of London’s coolest Hip Hop DJs.