Director, Sustainable Business

The Opportunity: Director, Sustainable Business

Brunswick Group, a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues, is seeking a Director in Chicago with expertise in how purpose, social value creation, and sustainability are transforming the future of business to join Brunswick’s Sustainable Business practice. Stakeholder demand for businesses to act responsibly and lead on social value has exponentially grown. At Brunswick, we recognize that corporate resilience today requires creating credible social value alongside financial value. Our Sustainable Business team advises the world’s leading companies on how to address these critical societal issues for business resilience and to meet the ever-increasing social value expectations of stakeholders.  

 

Our Chicago office is one of the fastest growing offices in our network. Founded in 2017, the office has grown from four to 40 professionals and the home office for some of our highest profile client work in the region.

 

What you will do:

The Director is an integral leadership role in our global Sustainable Business practice, with a primary focus on client engagement in the United States. This role requires a driven and innovative professional to work alongside the Sustainable Business Partners to continue to develop and grow the practice. The Director will drive client engagement and execution, developing and maintaining trusted and valued close relationships with clients, across a variety of industries at the c-suite level. The Director will also mentor and help develop junior level team members innovate to consistently improve our work with clients and our practice and provide critical thinking on societal challenges. Ultimately, the Director will contribute to the overall performance and impact of the Sustainable Business practice and the firm. 

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

• Lead internal teams on the delivery of client engagements, leading the client engagement team on research, benchmarking, internal and external activities, issue analysis, social value business case development, business leadership strategy, external partnerships and communications, organizational design and implementation support
• Deliver strategic advice to c-suite clients, drawing on expertise at the intersection of social value and financial value and depth of professional advisory experience
• Create new opportunities to drive impact with clients; anticipate client needs and deliver superior results by leveraging their capabilities to build high performing teams
• Apply knowledge of disruptive trends and competitor activity to drive continuous improvement in client engagements
• Innovate and drive the development of new approaches, methods and tools to optimize the client experience and strengthen value creation
• Build trusted relationships across a diverse network of clients and potential clients
• Empower and coach team members to stretch their capabilities and ensure they have access to the right resources to deliver results
• Deliver high-quality and impactful client-ready, board and executive-level materials including business cases and social value leadership strategies, assessments and benchmarking, research insights and conclusions, partnership and communications strategies, and ongoing program performance monitoring and evaluation. etc.
• Lead meetings and workshops with clients
• Develop and maintain strong, trusted and high touch relationships with client
• Engage and collaborate with colleagues across the firm at all levels to bring different expertise, thinking and perspectives to client work and the Sustainable Business practice offer
• Source new business opportunities - apply knowledge and experience to lead well-run pitch teams and pitch preparation
• Exhibit strategic thinking and strong analytical skills, evaluating different ideas, points of view, and out of the box thinking
• Write thoughtful, well-structured content including thought leadership associated with critical issues around the practice; considering style and tone of communications for different audience targets

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Undergraduate and/or masters level degree in business, communications or a related discipline with a focus on sustainability, social value or a related field
• Issue area expertise in one or more of the following preferred: circular economy, sustainable finance, labor and workforce topics, diversity, equity and inclusion change management, supply chain operations, and / or ESG governance.
• 10-15+ years of relevant work experience preferably in a communications advisory, consulting firm or related corporate function, with multiple years at the D