Group Corporate Communications Director

Our Client

Our Client is a leading developer of fully integrated and large scale destinations. The group offers an extensive portfolio of outstanding destinations and over 30 hotels. They are currently present in the GCC, Africa, and Europe and are executing aggressive regional and international growth plans.

Role
We are looking to place a Group Corporate Communications Director who will be instrumental in the shaping and delivery of the business ambitions and growth in the future. The ideal candidates will have both a strategic and operational remit and will be required to:

1. Strengthen the image/impact of the company as a corporate entity, business partner, an investment opportunity
2. Create and activate a corporate ‘customer brand’ that would give additional commercial ‘leverage’ to their destinations

• Strengthen company approach to communication at destination level to make the best use of best practices and capture potential cross-destination synergies

Tasks

• Responsible for executing the communications strategy throughout all channels (PR, Corporate Website, social media, marketing campaign, etc.) while leveraging as needed additional capabilities seating within other central teams (e.g. Events, Digital Marketing, Customer Experience).
• To develop a Center of Excellence approach to equip the company’s destinations with common tools, make best practices available to them across key expert areas such as PR, Marketing Communication, use of social media, etc. and access some key scale synergies.
• Propose a high-level roadmap for the Corporate Communication and Corporate Brand to best support the group strategy.
  • Assess needs and opportunities, and map key risk areas.
  • Articulate ambitions: scope of work, expected impact, the pace of delivery, capabilities needed; identify must-have basics and more advanced options; develop an initial vision
  • Refine vision, consolidate high-level roadmap, and resource deployment model.
• Lead the development of annual Corporate communication plans for the Group, with a particular focus on PR and social media; supervise the execution.
  • Establish priorities in liaison with the business objectives
  • Develop an integrated plan in coordination with other central teams.
  • Supervise content development to feed all external communications
  • Supervise teams in charge of executing the elements of the plan: PR, Social Media, and coordinate with other teams such as Events or Digital Marketing.
  • Set up a governance/control tower platform to maintain coherence, and coordination of all external communication at the destination level that may impact the company’s corporate image (e.g. social media).
• As a business owner for the company’s ‘customer’ Brand: propose a general Brand strategy and yearly activation plans; supervise the execution
  • Confirm the opportunity to turn the company’s Development into a ‘customer Brand’, eventually: define the potential role in portfolio, aspiration, and business impact.
  • Develop Brand identity based on current work on the company’s mission statement
  • Detail activation plan: activities, timelines, budget, metrics to measure the impact
• Supervise execution: content development and rollout across all channels/levers; in particular: take the lead on revamping the corporate website.
• Supervise the set-up of a ‘Center of Excellence’ approach for Communication / Marketing Communication to guide the work done locally by the destination teams:
  • Assess needs/opportunities for enhancing ways of working across the group; identify existing best practices and high impact opportunity areas (e.g. marketing spends effectiveness, costs synergies).
  • Propose scope of work and a general approach to disseminate best practices.
  • Supervise the development of content; plan for more operational support where needed
  • Maintain a general oversight to ensure coherence/coordination/sharing
  • Facilitate the emergence of a community of Communication experts across the group.
• Supervise the set-up of a ‘shared services’ approach at the central level to serve destination teams on specific ‘common’ needs:
  • Define scope based on needs/opportunities (scale synergies, need for control, etc.)
  • Recommend activities to be centralized, and assess impact and resources needed.
  • Clarify engagement model (SLAs) with the destinations
• Contribute to cross-functional efforts or operate as a thought partner to other functions, e.g.:
  • Work closely with Internal Communication Director to ensure coherence of internal/external communication plans and capture synergies.
  • Work with the Strategy team on the redesign of the planning process to allow for more integrated commercial and marketing plans.
  • Work with the Digital Marketing and Events team on the set-up of their CoE models to ensure similar approaches.
  • Etc.
• Recruit, manage, develop, and coach team members/leaders within the Corporate Communication entity to grow them into strong leaders/experts; provide supervision to operational local activities that will be ‘delegated’ to central teams by certain destinations.

Profile & Background

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree, MBA preferred.
• Extensive experience at a senior level in all aspects of Corporate Communication either in an agency or in a corporate environment. Experience in PR, ideally.
• Experience shaping a strategic communication agenda in a complex multi-stakeholder, multi-market environment; strong strategic thinking and excellent strategic planning capabilities in all areas of the Corporate / Marketing communication spectrum.
• Experience with managing int’l communication agencies.
• Excellent written/oral communication skills; perfect fluency in English; Arabic is a plus.
• Good understanding of the Egyptian, UAE, and European markets, int’l exposure is a must.

Other

• Highly competitive package
• Remote working acceptable (GCC, Middle East, Europe)

CONFIDENTIALITY

TRAC does not share any personal or role-related information provided by candidates or clients with a third party unless explicitly authorized to do so. Candidates are not permitted to share any information provided by TRAC employees or clients unless authorized to do so in writing.