Group Commercial Director

Opportunity:

We are looking for a Commercial Director to join the Founders Forum Group team, working across our events and Tech Nation team. Reporting to the Group CEO, you will be responsible for creating and delivering the Group's partnership/sponsorship strategy across our Events and Tech Nation programs. Initial focus will be largely on developing and securing partners alongside the team. The role will include negotiating major commercial partnerships with corporate stakeholders and tapping into international governments grant opportunities. The partnership strategy will support initiatives including; annual accelerator programmes, entrepreneur events, and third party event partnerships. You will collaborate with a wide team across the Founders Forum Group, and manage 2 direct reports. You will be responsible for delivering our revenue strategy to enable us to deliver an unrivalled experience for our entrepreneurs, and exceptional value for our sponsors/partners.

About Founders Forum:

Founders Forum Group is an event-powered community and family of businesses supporting innovative entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys. Founded in 2005, our invite-only forums unite founders, investors, corporate and government leaders to tackle era-defining questions in iconic locations across the globe. Since 2019, Founders Forum has partnered with Informa Tech to celebrate the strength and diversity of UK tech through London Tech Week

In 2023, Founders Forum acquired Tech Nation. The transfer will see FF Group continue to execute against Tech Nation's mission to empower tech entrepreneurs, scale innovative startups, and provide a united platform for UK tech founders.

Responsibilities will include:

• Leading and creating growth opportunities, and fostering long term relationships to shape and drive revenue growth for our programmes, community-driven events, and digital content.
• Building and executing new business development and account management plans for all events.
• Taking a lead role in drafting wider group commercial partnerships with partner events or businesses, supporting the CEO with business development initiatives.
• Identifying, winning, and managing new partnerships for events, programmes, sponsorships, or initiatives across the whole group.
• Being a leader for the FF & Tech Nation Head of Partnerships and sales team: coaching people who are newer to a sales role and providing growth opportunities.
• Building and executing high impact sales strategies for the Founders Forum and Tech Nation portfolios.
• Staying abreast of trends and changes in the business world locally and internationally, proactively developing yourself, staying abreast of the changing business/industry landscape.
• Working alongside the team to develop new event propositions, ensuring the design is relevant and timely for our partners, and scoping relevant packages.
• Managing CRM to keep Customer information/records up to date such as interactions, transactions, pipelines, new business account plans.
• Managing sales and KPI reporting, whilst working closely with the CFO to ensure financial forecasts remain accurate. Articulating the story based on reporting insights and presenting analysis on a regular basis. 
• Attending/participating in Founders Forum/Tech Nation events and industry-relevant seminars, associations, events, conference, and competitor events where appropriate.

Measurements of success will involve:

• Personal and team revenue targets.
• Relationship management with key stakeholders at the most senior level.
• New business revenue against target/KPIs.
• Forecasting accuracy.
• Sponsor conversion, retention, and growth.

Requirements

• You've had significant experience in a sales-related role, with experience selling events, digital media, or community programmes. 
• You are commercially minded and strategic, able to identify opportunities and craft propositions that fit well with the Founders Forum and Tech Nation brands. 
• You have experience with typical sales and marketing tools (Salesforce & Hubspot). 
• You thrive in fostering relationships and connecting the dots, bringing our community and partners together to create value. 
• You are an effective communicator with strong interpersonal skills capable of influencing and managing stakeholders. 
• You work well in a team and have good leadership skills. You are able to think critically and flexibly, and make changes where necessary to achieve goals. 
• You have entrepreneurial drive – you are creative, resilient and proactive. 
• You are structured, organised, self-driven and able to project manage multiple projects, in a deadline-oriented environment. 
• You have some knowledge of the tech and/or startup marketplace and are intrigued to know more. 
• You are based in the UK.

Benefits

We offer a range of flexible, discretionary benefits to our team. These currently include:

• 25 days contractual annual leave.
• Enhanced discretionary leave provision, including an additional day off for your mental health, wellbeing, and learning and development stipends.
• Lunch 1x/week, office snacks, and regular team drinks.
• Quarterly team activities and annual team trip/day out.
• Access to the Founders Forum Group network of businesses and wider tech ecosystem.

We have a hybrid working model with 4 days spent in the office and 1 day with the option to work remotely/from home.

Founders Forum Group's Values:

• Community first: More than just fellow founders. Everything we offer is centred around the founders we work alongside.
• Entrepreneurial to our core: Preserving our startup mentality is the key to being able to empathise with and fully support our growing community.
• Founding the future: We are forward thinkers. Always at the forefront of innovation.
• Excellence without ego: We don't take ourselves too seriously, but are proud of what we do. We work together, recognising the expertise of those around us, and understand the value in differing points of view. We are committed to excellence and always hold ourselves to the highest standard.