Corporate Affairs Lead

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation.

The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

The Global Communications Group is the central Forum team dedicated to communications with the public, media, stakeholders and staff in relation to the Forum’s mission. Through multiple channels, the Group is responsible for communicating the work of the Forum and its constituents, reaching, growing, engaging and inspiring diverse and interested audiences.

Why we are recruiting

The Group is expanding and consolidating its strategy. It is composed of four key functions: Communication Strategy and Coordination, Public Engagement, Media Engagement, and Stakeholder and Staff Engagement.

The Corporate Affairs Lead will be based within the Stakeholder and Staff Engagement function and will ensure consistent and high-quality partner interactions with the Forum’s Global Communications Group.

Reporting Lines & Interactions

The role will report to the Head of Marketing Content and will be responsible for developing and delivering plans to drive constituents engagement across Forum communications channels, manage a new community of Chief Communications and Marketing Officers, and inform how the Forum manages its corporate affairs function.

Internally, the role will liaise with colleagues across the Global Communications Group and the broader Forum, particularly the Forum’s teams responsible for engaging with business and other stakeholders. Externally, the role will involve high engagement with partner communications teams, consultants and/or agencies and service providers.

Key responsibilities

• Act as the single point of contact for partner representatives, advising them on how best to leverage media, communications and marketing opportunities on Forum channels, while ensuring quality submissions that meet editorial guidelines, both in tandem with internal content teams.
• Create and update all materials related to communications opportunities offered to partners.
• Lead the management of the Forum’s new Chief Communications and Marketing Officers (CCMO) group together with the Head of Marketing Content, ensuring on-time delivery of meetings, meeting summaries and associated plans and materials.
• Develop a mechanism to glean insights from the CCMO group and serve them up to other areas of the Global Communications Group so they might be considered in group planning.
• Develop a system by which to measure and report on the performance of partner content published on Forum channels, for both internal use and potential reporting to partners themselves.
• Identify and institutionalize corporate affairs best practices and stay abreast of the latest trends in general marketing and stakeholder communications, informing the Forum’s strategy accordingly.
• Represent the Forum internally and externally where applicable, in interactions with external constituents, as well as at institutional events.
• Manage corporate communications and corporate affairs opportunities where relevant for the Forum.
• Manage, publicly present and/or moderate partner media briefings or press conferences, where relevant and when needed.
• Present corporate affairs activities internally to Forum teams.

The successful candidate will be assessed on

• Successful creation, deployment and regular adaptation of a corporate affairs strategy and framework.
• Successful management of the Forum’s CCMO community, evaluated by session attendance, quality of engagements, on-time delivery of outputs, and quality development of plans and materials.
• Successful engagement and advisory of partner representatives on their use of Forum channels, including development of a new approach to reporting partner-content performance metrics.
• Successful development of an evaluation framework for the effectiveness of the Forum’s corporate affairs function.
• Strong understanding of the Forum’s mission and impact, and the needs of the Forum’s partners, constituents and leadership.
• Ongoing learning of the corporate affairs, communications and marketing landscape.
• Effectively represent the Forum externally, in interactions with external constituents as well as at institutional events.

Required qualifications

• Advanced degree or equivalent in marketing, communications, public relations or related discipline. Candidates who have completed digital accreditations or taken different routes to upskilling are welcome to apply.
• 8-10+ years of relevant work experience in marketing, public relations, content production, digital marketing, or other relevant fields
• Proven track record and experience of engaging external stakeholders and managing end-to-end customer engagement processes.
• Excellent project-management skills.
• Hands-on experience of building and delivering corporate affairs frameworks and evaluation.
• Strong English communication skills, both written and verbal. Proficiency in other languages a valued asset.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure and handle multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Ability to travel, as needed.

Why work at the Forum

The World Economic Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change.