Director, Foundations, Education and Global Health Sector

Brunswick Group is seeking a Director to join our rapidly growing Foundations, Education and Global Health (FEGH) Sector with experience in higher education or a related area, such as academic medical centers, multistakeholder nonprofit organizations or research institutions, in one of Brunswick’s US offices (Washington, New York, San Francisco, Dallas or Chicago). Directors are able to leverage their own specialized skills and backgrounds while operating in Brunswick’s generalist environment.

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

Client Contribution & Handling

• Deliver strategic advice to clients, drawing on specialist communications expertise and depth of professional advisory experience
• Demonstrate deep knowledge of the clients’ mission and strategic communications issues
• Influentially engage with key stakeholders
• Monitor level of account profitability and intervene as necessary

Communication Skills

• Write thoughtful, well-structured content; consider audience in style and tone of communications
• Express a point of view in a thoughtful manner; able to analyze and distil complex information
• Exhibit good and exercise discretion
• Question and challenge in a constructive way; present unpopular ideas confidently

Business Development

• Source new business opportunities; along with partner, apply knowledge and experience to lead well-run pitch teams and drive the pitch preparation
• Use deep knowledge of key sectors to promote new business approaches and ideas
• Assist in pitches for colleagues across regions and sectors
• Identify new opportunities to deliver other Brunswick expertise to existing clients; actively pursue and secure extensions of client relationships
• Build and maintain strong external networks in order to deliver valuable insight to clients and the Firm

Team

• Actively and effectively manage account teams; drive day-to-day account
• Keep the partner and other team members informed of account and project status
• Foster development of team members’ skills and client handling ability by identifying new challenges and encouraging team to stretch where appropriate

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• 10-15+ years of experience in a senior advisory or leadership position, including at least 5 years in higher education or a related area such as academic medical centers, multistakeholder nonprofit organizations or research institutions
• Experience managing teams of five or more people
• Proven ability to successfully interact with the media in proactive and reactive situations, and to advise clients on strategies and tactics for issues management and other communications challenges and opportunities.
• Strong work ethic and attention to detail; client service-orientation
• Ability to operate in fast pace, client service environment
• Exceptional research, writing and communication skills
• Ability to multitask and prioritize
• Problem-solving skills and detail orientation
• Ability to think strategically and creatively
• Energetic team player
• Self-motivation
• Exhibit discretion with confidential client matters
• Thorough understanding of current political, business, technology, cultural and social trends, and their impact on higher education, philanthropy and related areas.

Ideal Candidate:

• Understands the culture, language, organizational dynamics and reputational needs of higher education, philanthropy, nonprofits and related areas.
• Gravitas and clear leadership skills with immediate credibility to work closely with and advise governing boards, senior executives and multiple and diverse stakeholders
• Excellent communicator with high energy and a strong work ethic
• Solid team ethic – someone who will invest in the people around them and draw/build resource
• Entrepreneurial, collaborative and team-oriented – it’s a “roll your sleeves up environment”
• Adept at navigating and succeeding within high-performance environments
• High emotional intelligence and strong personal impact
• Commercial acumen and professional polish
• Terrific sense of humor

The Firm

About Brunswick

Brunswick is a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues and critical stakeholders. Our purpose is to help our clients play their role in the world successfully.

We advise on critical issues and critical stakeholders at the center of business, politics and society, and help our clients – the leaders of large, complex organizations – understand and navigate these interconnected worlds.

Brunswick is one firm globally, operating as a single profit center. This allows us to respond seamlessly and effectively to clients’ needs wherever they are in the world.

About the Foundations, Education and Global Health Sector

Brunswick works with some of the biggest and most impactful philanthropic funders, educational institutions, multilateral organizations, and NGOs to address the greatest challenges of our time, from pandemics to climate change, inequality to access to education. We advise the leadership teams of global organizations on communications strategy and stakeholder engagement – integrating our global capabilities in issue expertise, geopolitics, research, and creative campaigns. We help our clients run coordinated policy, advocacy, and communications campaigns to create real change. We also support our clients in managing reputational challenges and risk as they navigate shifting stakeholder expectations and evolving issue terrains.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement

Maintaining and strengthening a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace are pillars of Brunswick’s culture and key to our future success. Valuing and supporting every colleague as an individual while helping them reach their full potential is critical to attracting and developing our greatest strength – our people. By embracing our differences and diverse perspectives we create richer experiences within our firm and enhance the quality of the ideas and advice that we deliver to our clients.

Background

Founded in London in 1987, Brunswick’s global partnership has grown organically to 27 offices in 18 countries. We began as a M&A and financial communications firm and, over time, expanded our capabilities to provide expert advice to our clients on a range of business-critical issues. We invested in new offices, sector teams and practice groups including higher education; foundations and nonprofits; investor engagement; shareholder activism; governance; regulatory and public affairs, including geopolitical; crisis; litigation; social issues including climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion; cybersecurity, data and privacy; employee engagement; digital communications; opinion research and analysis, and; creative services.

Our CEO is Neal Wolin, based in Washington, D.C. Our Chairman is Sir Alan Parker, based in London.

The Americas

In the U.S., we have offices in Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. In Brazil, we have an office in Sao Paulo. We advise clients on, among other things, domestic and cross border M&A, IPOs, activism, capital markets and investor relations, public and regulatory affairs, geopolitical issues, litigation, crisis, cyber, employee engagement, digital, opinion research and on broader reputation campaigns.

Colleagues in the U.S. are drawn from a variety of backgrounds and consist of in-depth industry and sector experts from education, banking, law, accounting, politics, government, journalism and the media, consulting and elsewhere. Our U.S. CEO is Nik Deogun.