About Teneo
Teneo advises private and public sector leaders, enabling them to achieve goals faster and at lower cost by earning trust, navigating disruption, and removing barriers. We are built to help drive success in a world no longer defined by boundaries and disciplines. Working with the world’s leading companies and organizations, Teneo provides strategic counsel across their full range of key objectives and issues, with a focus on five main services offerings, including Strategy and communications; Management Consulting; Financial Advisory; Risk Advisory; and People Advisory.
Teneo employs more than 1,600 people around the world, offering global reach from a light infrastructure, built out of regional hubs. Our culture is critical to our success. We have a flat management structure with an open and supportive office atmosphere. To support progression and learning, we foster a supportive environment with a focus on mental health and wellbeing as well as adopting an inclusive environment that allows all employees to flourish. We recognise that diversity is essential for our business and encourage applicants from all backgrounds.
The Role
Teneo is looking for a talented and driven Managing Director with a passion for strategic communications to join our Strategy and Communications team in the Middle East. Teneo’s Strategy and communications service offering provides all aspects of integrated communications counsel to business and government leaders and CEOs. This role is part of a thriving team advising high-profile clients on how to create effective narratives, manage reputation, engage with key audiences and tell proactive stories which support clients’ strategic objectives.
We’re interested in meeting candidates with wide-ranging perspectives, and we’re open to hearing from you whether you currently work agency side or in-house.
It’s key for us that you can cut across sectors and switch seamlessly between all our disciplines, from reactive issues management to proactive storytelling. And we’d love it if, like us, you’re intellectually curious, creative, collaborative, and eager to learn.
As a Managing Director you’ll be responsible for overseeing and ensuring the highest quality of service delivery to our clients, across multiple interdisciplinary account teams. Managing Directors lead, manage and coach our team of Executives, Associates, Senior Associates, Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents, and are integral to the growth and profitability of our business.
Working at Teneo in the Middle East
Teneo works with some of the world’s biggest public sector and corporate entities across a wide range of sectors and issues, including energy, tech, FMCG, financial services and government offices. Our clients include a significant number of the FTSE 100 and Fortune 100, as well as other global public and private corporations and government entities. We’re an ambitious, global consultancy which allows candidates unmatched opportunities to develop and work with inspiring, motivated people.
Although this role is to primarily support our publicly listed corporate clients with financial communications and investor relations, we actively encourage our people to grow and develop their advisory skills across all our disciplines, including financial and M&A, digital, creative campaigning and corporate communications, change and employee engagement, leadership coaching, sustainability, strategy and research, issues and crisis management, and restructuring and management consultancy, to solve complex business issues for our clients.
Key Responsibilities
As a Managing Director with the Strategy and Communications team at Teneo, your role will include:
- Providing strategic leadership and direction – Oversee the development and implementation of integrated financial communication and investor relations plans to support clients' objectives.Set the direction for client account teams and provide guidance as needed.
- Providing media and reputation management expertise - Stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the Middle Eastern media landscape, utilizing this knowledge to strategically position clients in the market and to identify new communication opportunities and protect / promote the reputation of our clients.
- Providing investor and capital markets expertise – Guide clients in their engagement with buy and sell-side stakeholders, relevant stock exchange(s) and institutional, retail and governmental shareholders.
- Crisis and issues management – Provide leadership and strategic guidance during crisis situations, ensuring effective communication and reputation management across teams.
- Client relationship management – Act as a senior point of contact for clients, providing strategic counsel and managing client relationships to ensure satisfaction and retention. Maintain a strong network in the region to facilitate business growth.
- Team management – Lead, manage, and mentor a team of communications professionals, promoting a culture of high performance, collaboration and continuous learning.
- Business development - Play a key role in business development activities, including networking, pitching, and overseeing proposal development. Leverage strong commercial understanding to align strategic communication plans with business objectives, support forecasting and budgeting, and drive business growth and profitability.
Furthermore, you will be expected to:
- Leading large and often integrated teams to deliver strategies that have impact for our clients across a range of topics and channels
- Acting as the senior strategic counsel to senior clients
- Provide insight and intelligence through relevant networking
- Ensuring excellent client servicing, profitability, forecasting and budgeting
- Ability to innovate on behalf of clients, challenging the status quo with new thinking, new product development, and new ways of working
- Growing existing client briefs and contributing to winning new business
- Generating new business leads through networks and proactive opportunity spotting
- Leading new business pitches and bringing teams together to win new work
- Playing a role in the management of the wider team at Teneo
- Talent management of junior colleagues
- Proactively contributing to and fostering a knowledge-sharing environment with clients and colleagues – seeking new insights, knowledge and expertise
Skills and Experience
- A bachelor’s degree or higher in communications, journalism, political science, law, public policy, international relations, business, finance, accounting, or a related field
- 12+ years of experience in a strategy, communications or finance/investor relations role – within agency or in-house
- Working in a senior role in strategic communications consulting, business, industry or consultancy is essential
- Strong understanding of finance, capital markets and/or investor relations
- Demonstrable experience in managing client accounts and/or industry understanding drawn from a senior role
- Excellent ability to shape and deliver strategic advice to senior level clients
- Strong leadership, team management and collaboration skills and ability to foster good working relationships
- Proven networking skills
- Understanding of budgets and financial management
- Comfortable taking the lead on driving performance and revenue – and/or willingness to learn to take the lead on doing so
- Excellent understanding of the region – its media and business landscapes
- Confident and proven ability to grasp clients’ business objectives and relevant wider industry dynamics to enable drafting of messaging and communications materials
- Established and demonstrable experience working with international media
- Exceptional written and verbal communications skills
- Excellent command of Microsoft Office (PowerPoint and Word)
- Understanding of digital communications
- Analysis and data visualisation skills
- Arabic writing skills an asset (for Arabic speakers)
Characteristics and Attributes
- Strategic and critical thinker
- Collaborative and a team player
- Problem solver with a positive attitude
- Flexible and always willing to try
- Detail oriented and committed to high quality deliverables
- Intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit
- Humble, honest and respectful
- Resilient and performs well under pressure
- Comfortable with uncertainty
- Readiness for frequent travel and stints at clients’ offices
What we can offer
New joiners are supported by an induction programme, and continuous development is a key focus of life at Teneo - learning and knowledge sharing are at the heart of this. We have an environment and culture that is focused on supporting your development and career progression. We support this with a dedicated Learning Team who provide a range of learning opportunities and personal development support.
Given our client base you’ll be working on career-defining work that is exciting, rewarding and one where you can make a real impact to high profile projects.
Teneo works with clients on complex issues and challenges that often require a multidisciplinary approach that leverage our main business segments – Strategy & Communications, Management Consulting, Financial Advisory, People Advisory, and Risks Advisory. You will have opportunities to work alongside our experts in these disciplines to develop and deliver an integrated solution.
Company Benefits
As well as this we offer a whole host of benefits and reward including:
- Competitive salary
- 25 days holiday
- Discretionary annual bonus
- Annual salary review
- End-of-service benefits
- Enhanced maternity and paternity leave (depending on length of service)
- Private medical insurance (individual and immediate family members)
- Regular social, cultural and charitable activities
- Flexible and remote working with office laptop provided
