Director, Corporate Leadership & Transformation Communications

The Opportunity: Director, Corporate Leadership & Transformation

Brunswick Group, a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues, is seeking a Director in Chicago who will confidently advise C-suite level clients on strategic communications for a wide range of high-stakes issues. In addition to client-facing responsibilities, the Director will guide and mentor junior staff and contribute to the growth and success of the Chicago office and the firm.

Brunswick is a widely recognized industry leader. For nearly four decades, Brunswick has consistently ranked at the top of our industry’s league tables for M&A communications on a country, regional, and global basis. Over the last five years, the firm has advised on more than 1,000 M&A transactions totaling $2 trillion in value. In 2024, Brunswick ranked the #1 global M&A communications advisor, advising on 295 transactions valued at $583B. We were also awarded the Band 1 ranking by Chambers and Partners for Crisis & Risk Management for four consecutive years – 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

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.

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

Client Contribution & Handling

• Deliver strategic advice to c-suite clients, drawing on specialist communications expertise and depth of professional advisory experience
• Demonstrate deep knowledge of the clients’ business and strategic communications issues spanning financial situations, crisis, litigation, and/or transformation
• Monitor level of account profitability and intervene as necessary

Communication Skills

• Express a point of view in a thoughtful manner; analyze and distill complex information
• Write thoughtful, well-structured content; consider audience in style and tone of communications
• Exhibit and exercise sound judgement and discretion
• Question and challenge in a constructive way; present unpopular ideas to senior executives with poise and confidence

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 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 to deliver valuable insight to clients and the firm

Teams

• Actively and effectively manage account teams; drive the day-to-day
• 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 advising c-suite stakeholders across a variety of sectors on high-stakes crisis and issues communications, financial situations communications, and/or leadership and transformation communications
• Experience managing teams of five or more people
• Proven ability to successfully interact with top-tier media in proactive and reactive situations
• Strong work ethic and attention to detail; client service-orientation
• Exceptional research, writing and communication skills
• Ability to multitask and prioritize competing deadlines with attention to detail
• Exhibit discretion with confidential client matters
• Strong financial acumen, interest, and understanding of capital markets and a range of business and financial situations involving U.S. public companies
• Appetite for consuming a wide range of news from multiple sources
• Emotionally intelligent and adept at “reading the room”
• Professional polish, energy, and clear leadership skills
• Natural team player who invests in the people around them
• Entrepreneurial, collaborative and comfortable in a “roll your sleeves up environment”
• Adept at navigating and succeeding within high-performance, high-standards environments

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 investo