The Role: Director
Brunswick Group, a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues, is seeking a Director in Chicago with expertise in counseling consumer companies and business leaders on a wide range of high-stakes issues to join its Consumer Industries Sector (CIG) team. In addition to client-facing responsibilities, the CIG Director will play an important role in the marketing and internal leadership of the sector team, one of the largest at the firm. Directors along with Partners serve as firm leaders and play a critical role in driving client work and the overall success of 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 serves as the global hub for our consumer industries sector, working with clients in retail, food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and hospitality, and 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 consumer industries 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 consumer industries clients, including c-suite stakeholders, around strategic communications for critical issues (i.e., Litigation, Financial Situations, Crisis)
- Extensive expertise and focus on understanding key stakeholders and issues within consumer industries sub-sectors such as retail, hospitality, CPG
- 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 investor relations, public and regulatory affairs, geopolitical issues, litigation, crisis, cyber, employee engagement, digital, opinion research and on broader reputation campaigns.
Colleagues in the U.S. are drawn from a variety of backgrounds and consist of in-depth industry and sector experts from banking, law, accounting, politics, government, journalism and the media, consulting and elsewhere. Our U.S. CEO is Nik Deogun.
Brunswick is a global advisory firm. We help companies tackle high-stakes issues, navigate complex stakeholder relationships, and deliver high-impact outcomes.
Our clients value our ability to anticipate, shape, and respond to the key players and forces in the financial and investment arena, regulatory and geopolitical universe, NGO community, workforce and beyond. They rely on us for deep experience, fresh perspectives and original thinking. So, in Brunswick you will find an exceptional range of experience and talent with a rich mix of backgrounds. From the beginning, we have prioritized attracting, developing, and retaining the best and most diverse professionals in the industry, united by a culture of inclusivity, excellence, and intellectual curiosity.
Founded in 1987 in London, the firm has organically grown to 27 offices in 18 countries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. We operate as a “one-firm firm” with no individual profit centers. This allows us to assemble fully integrated, bespoke teams for each client, able to draw on the full resources of Brunswick anywhere in the world.
What We Do
Brunswick is an advisory firm specialising in business critical issues. We help companies build trusted relationships with all their stakeholders.
When clients turn to us, it’s because they know that engaging effectively with everyone who has a stake in the company is about more than managing perceptions - it is essential to making business work.
Our background in financial communications means we understand how businesses are wired. It also means integrity is deep in our nature: diligence, openness and accuracy.
Brunswick is one firm globally. Delivering anywhere, we have a reputation for high-calibre, highly experienced people who have diverse backgrounds and skills.
It means whatever the task, no matter how complex or where it is in the world, we can assemble the right expertise from right across the firm.
Our purpose is to help the great value creating organisations of the world play a more successful role in society.
You can also follow us on Twitter @BrunswickGroup
