Director

The Role: Director, Client Handler, Chicago 

Brunswick Group is seeking a Director with expertise in Financial, Corporate and Crisis strategic communications to join our Chicago office. Directors are able to leverage their own specialized skills and backgrounds while operating in Brunswick’s generalist environment.

About Brunswick 

Brunswick is a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues. Our purpose is to help the great value-creating organizations of the world play a more successful role in society. 

We advise on critical issues 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. 

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 banking, law, accounting, politics, government, journalism and the media, consulting and elsewhere. Our U.S. CEO is Nik Deogun. 

The Chicago Office  

Chicago is home to some of the world’s most iconic and well-respected companies, many of whom play a leading role on the global stage. We recognize the vibrancy of the Midwestern business community and leverage our strong network – both in the US and internationally – to help our clients better navigate the ever-evolving corporate, civic, and political landscape. 

Our team contains wide-ranging expertise, with a particular focus on supporting clients during periods of significant change, risk, and public scrutiny. This includes domestic and cross-border M&A, IPOs, and other capital markets transactions as well as broader corporate reputation campaigns and leadership communications around critical issues including crisis, litigation and activism defense. The Chicago office also serves as the global hub for Brunswick’s Employee Engagement offer, which helps leadership teams to communicate more effectively with their employees on critical business issues including leadership, talent, culture, and strategy execution. 

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 and expertise to crisis communications and communications on other business critical issues. We invested in new offices, sectors and a wider variety of offers for clients such as public and regulatory affairs, major litigation, business and society, cyber, employee engagement and digital. Our in-house creative agency, Merchant Cantos, delivers creative, visual content for clients. 

We rank number 1 in the world over the last five years by global deal value and global deal volume and were named Band 1 advisors in the U.S. and the UK earlier this year by Chambers and Partners, the legal rankings service, as one of the very top communications firms offering legal and litigation support work. 

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

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’ business 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 distill complex information
• Exhibit and exercise sound judgement and 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

Teams

• 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 an advisory position
• Experience managing teams of five or more people
• Proven ability to successfully interact with the media in proactive and reactive situations
• 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 business and finance

Ideal Candidate:

• Experience in advising clients and/or c-suite stakeholders around strategic communications around critical issues (i.e., Litigation, Financial Situations, Crisis)
• Gravitas and clear leadership skills
• 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