Director of Corporate Partner Engagement

The Executive Leadership Council is the preeminent member organization for the development of global black leaders. Comprised of more than 850 current and former corporate black CEOs, board members and senior executives at Fortune 1000 & Global 500 companies, entrepreneurs leading top-tier firms, and recognized thought leaders, we open channels of opportunity for the development of black executives to positively impact business and communities.

We are currently seeking a Director of Corporate Partner Engagement to join the Leadership Institute team in our Washington, DC office.

Position Overview

The ideal candidate we are looking for in this role is an ambitious, energetic, and strategic Business Development expert to support the expanded reach and impact of the Executive Leadership Council's Leadership Development offerings. This role will be responsible for leading and managing our partner engagement strategies while having an immediate impact in bringing on new corporate partners and supporting the creation of a sustainable engagement strategy that enables our growth.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS & KEY OUTCOMES

Business Development

• Generate new business for the ELC Institute, securing sponsorship pledges and program registrations for current and prospective corporate partners.
• Create and manage the end-to-end business development process for all offerings of the Leadership Institute Department.
• Partner with leadership to create and/or optimize sales collateral and associated messaging to highlight the value of Institute offerings to key stakeholders at current and potential partners.
• Define a partner development process to inform optimization/customization of supporting systems (CRM).
• Develop and execute annual individual work plan aligned with the ELC Institute's goals with measurable targets and outcomes.
• Update relevant systems with consistent customer, project, proposal, and contract information.
• Build long-term relationships with new and existing corporate partners.

General Duties

• Contribute to the achievement of established department goals and objectives and adhere to department policies, procedures, quality and safety standards.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication, persuasion, and motivation skills are critical to success as are collegial, collaborative, team player attributes.
• Maintain current professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing professional networks, and participating in professional associations.
• Must be a self-starter with the ability to work in a fast-paced office environment, demonstrating a flexible approach with short deadlines and juggling numerous high-visibility projects.
• Position is for a "senior doer" who will "own" the strategy, execution, and evaluation of all initiatives.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values learning and a commitment to quality improvement.
• Ability to maintain high project organization, multitask, and a focus on quality of results with attention to detail.
• Create and manage a seamless information sharing workflow within the Leadership Institute department and the overall organization.
• Perform other duties as needed.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & CREDENTIALS

• A Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Non-Profit Management, Public Administration, or another relevant academic discipline. MBA strongly preferred.
• A minimum of 5-7 years progressive responsible experience in membership sales, fundraising, corporate social responsibility, non-profit or foundation development.
• A minimum of 3-5 years of progressive responsible experience in strategic partnership or business development, sales (or similar role) with proven sales and negotiating track record.
• Working knowledge of CRM, lead generation, and/or marketing analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, NetInsight, etc.).

COMPETENCIES

• Mission Alignment & Awareness: Has a passion for and commitment to opening channels of opportunity for the development of Black professionals to positively impact business and local communities; contributes to the organization by understanding and aligning actions with the organization's goals, core functions, and values.

• Business Development Operations: Applies a strong understanding of the required reporting for different business development functions and for the organization's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); analyzes large amounts of data from multiple sources, including the organization's CRM data, to observe trends or strengths and weaknesses within the data set; develops research and analysis reports that follow the organization's data collection and maintenance policies; consistently follows the organization's data collection and maintenance policies, including completeness, currency, accuracy, and high quality.

• Relationship Building: Develops and maintains internal and external trusting, professional relationships, including using listening and understanding to build rapport; recognizes the business concerns and perspectives of others and works in a manner that is mutually beneficial; consistently communicates and shares information with others; interacts effectively with people of diverse backgrounds; develops a reputation as a neutral, approachable professional within the department, business units, and external contacts; establishes external networks with individuals who can be directly beneficial to the achievement of work-related goals.

• Communications Knowledge: Practices effective communication based on approaches that demonstrate results; delivers relevant and targeted communication aligned with business and audience needs; uses primary and secondary research to inform communications plans; understands business functions in alignment with organizational priorities and audience needs and preferences; networks with internal and external stakeholders; understands the relationship between various communication channels and understands when and how to use a variety of channels; creates clear, consistent, creative, and compelling content.

• Planning & Results Orientation: Organizes and executes work to meet organizational goals and objectives while meeting quality standards and following organizational processes; ensures individual performance does not negatively impact the performance of others; recommends additional resources that would improve effectiveness and helps others access required resources; identifies opportunities to improve work processes and efficiency; contributes to setting work priorities and direction; identifies in advance when intended results may not be achieved; takes initiative; is not satisfied with the status quo.

• Ethics & Integrity: Earns the trust and respect of others through a consistent commitment to integrity, honesty, and professionalism in all interactions.

• Strategic Leadership & Execution: Uses vision to think beyond the immediate situation and explore multiple potential paths; ensures that organizational goals are met by executing, monitoring, and adhering to the organizational action plan; implements new initiatives or adapts existing department initiatives to better meet the needs of the organizational mission and vision; communicates departmental goals to ensure short- and medium-term goals are achieved; displays a 'can-do' attitude for achieving results and encourages others to work in a manner that will meet or exceed the desired objectives or results; demonstrates ability to adapt decision-making style based on the situational circumstances.

• Teamwork & Collaboration: Works well cross-functionally and with others on the team to achieve personal goals, team goals, and organizational goals; takes responsibility for individual actions in order to achieve consistent results; fosters team camaraderie, collaboration, and cohesion; understands the impact of one's actions on the ability of their team members to do their jobs; respects the differences other team members bring to the table by openly seeking others' opinions; makes suggestions to improve team engagement and effectiveness; supports implementation of team decisions; professionally gives and seeks feedback in order to achieve common goals.

• Problem Solving & Decision-Making: Identifies problems and uses logical analysis to find information, understand causes, and evaluate and select best possible courses of action; seeks information and input to fully understand the cause of problems; takes action to remove obstacles and address problems before they impact performance and results; initiates the evaluation of possible solutions to problems; assesses risks before making a decision; does not take unnecessary risks; effectively navigates through ambiguity, using multiple data points to analyze issues and identify trends.

• Creativity & Innovation: Thinks beyond the confines of traditional models to recognize opportunities and find new and better ways of doing things; questions common practice and contributes to improvement of processes and outputs; proposes novel ideas; utilizes appropriate brainstorming techniques to generate ideas; researches current thinking and shares ideas; explores different alternatives that would achieve a similar output, with the goal of achieving process simplification or efficiencies.

• Resilience & Managing Uncertainty: Adjusts thinking and behavior in order to adapt to changes in the job and work environment with limited stress; is able to work effectively in an unstructured environment; actively promotes and advocates the advantages of changes when new and credible information emerges; acknowledges uncertainty and shares constructive coping strategies with team members.

• Culture Management: Brings organizational values to life using personality, uniqueness, and the creation of shared vision; demonstrates core values and encourages others to do the same; ensures that individuals and teams are working in a manner that is consistent with organizational values.

• Communication & Interpersonal Effectiveness: Effectively and appropriately interacts and communicates with others to build positive, constructive, professional relationships; tailors communication style and messages based on the audience; seeks to understand others' points of view, observes verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage open and honest discussions; uses clear, precise, and error-free language; invites and encourages others to participate in discussions; identifies and helps to resolve interpersonal conflict between team members; does not jump to conclusions or act on assumptions.

• Customer Focus: Identifies, considers, prioritizes, and takes action on the needs of both internal and external customers; uses knowledge about the customer to inform decision making and problem solving; strives to provide additional value to the customer experience; actively solicits internal and customer feedback in order to improve the relationship; suggests ways to improve the customer experience.

• Technology: Proficient with Microsoft productivity suite, association management system (AMS) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, Adobe Design Suite, SharePoint, and other functional software relevant to area of responsibility.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Work is performed in an interior office setting which has no adverse environmental conditions expected.
• Hybrid Role requiring 2 days per week/8 days a month in office with up to 25% of travel time in the field.
• Work involves frequently sitting for extended periods of time, frequently talking or hearing, frequently operating a computer, and occasional light physical effort (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, etc.) objects weighing up to 25 lbs.
• Work requires frequent ability to comprehend direction and adhere to policies or established procedures, ability to use logic to make sound decisions, ability to interpret and analyze data, ability to gather and organize information for a wide variety of audiences, ability to read and write a variety of materials, and ability to adapt well in the face of workplace stress.

The Executive Leadership Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment based on an individual's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as defined by federal, state, and local law.