Head of Commercial, EMEA

We’re looking for a Head of Commercial, EMEA to join our team in London as part of our Sales function.

Your Team: You will work closely with the LIONS Director of Commercial Strategy to create and deliver a regional commercial strategy and roadmap that will allow the global brand to achieve its ambitious revenue targets and long-term growth plans in the EMEA region.

Your Role: You will have full ownership of the sales and commercial arm in this region – leading a small, but high-performing team working across multiple revenue streams including partnerships, event sponsorship, subscription products, and advisory services. Candidates will have first-rate sales leadership skills and at least 5+ years of experience with a proven track record of exceeding growth expectations and leading successful sales operations.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Responsible for delivering against, or exceeding, stretching annual revenue targets (EMEA).
2. Ownership and leadership of EMEA commercial operation.
3. Delivery of commercial strategy across all revenue streams.
4. Ensuring consistent growth across the product portfolio (within each stream and overall).
5. Ownership and management of regional stakeholders and key customer relationships (EMEA).
6. Maintaining an inclusive, collaborative culture where high performance is recognized and inevitable.
7. Regional performance reporting with emphasis on accurate forecasting from excellent pipeline management.
8. Develop creative, on-brand sales products and solutions that maximize inventory and growth.
9. Coaching and development of Account Managers and management of overall team performance.
10. Ensuring optimal sales processes and systems are maintained including clear ways of working and use of Salesforce.
11. Responsible for being across market shifts and customer and competitor activity.
12. Building and maintaining exceptional internal stakeholder and business partner relationships.
13. Acting as a primary point of contact and brand ambassador for Lions (internally and externally) within the region.

Your Experience:

1. Strong experience in sales in a relevant industry.
2. Credible leader who can represent themselves and the brand in a credible way.
3. Knowledge of the relevant market and ability to build strong stakeholder and customer relationships.
4. Strong list of clients and industry connections.
5. First-rate leadership and sales ability and a proven track record.
6. Proven experience in maintaining a culture of collaboration, success, and high performance in the region.
7. A sales process expert with excellent pipeline management capabilities.
8. Sales and targets driven with exceptional sales management skills.
9. Consistent ability to excel across multiple revenue streams with different business models.
10. Ability to move from creative thinking to strategic sales planning with ease.
11. Excellent communication skills – persuasive, confident, and in control.
12. Flexible – must be willing to travel globally throughout the year.

If you don’t meet every single requirement, we’d still encourage you to apply. At LIONS , we are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role, we would still like you to apply.

Who are we?

The LIONS brand is probably most synonymous with Cannes Lions, The International Festival of Creativity, the definitive meeting place for the global creative communications and advertising community. It’s five days of inspiration, aspiration, unlimited magic, and potential. The Festival has been championing creative excellence since 1954 with the goal of providing a global destination and the definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress.

LIONS is going through an exciting time as it’s recently repositioned as The Home of Creativity, supporting those in the business of creativity at every step of their journeys with an extended portfolio of new advisory, learning, and intelligence services. Our purpose is to drive progress through creativity for an incredibly diverse and talented global creative community.

You will join a team of change-makers. The team’s purpose is to champion change to create the most powerful global creative community and drive growth for the brand.

LIONS is part of Ascential . Ascential takes the world’s leading brands to the heart of what’s next for their industries. We do this through our events, intelligence products, and advisory services. Our 700+ people serve a global customer base from more than 100 countries in the large and growing Marketing and Financial Technology sectors. Ascential is part of the Informa Group.

Why Choose Us?

Two divisions. Three continents. One great culture – we want working for Ascential to be the best career move you’ve ever made.

Ascential is a people-powered company, and we’re committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion . We publish an annual DEI Report, setting out our goals and progress. We invest in Employee Groups including Able to Thrive, Ascential Pride, Black in Business, and Empower Women’s Network. Our inclusive recruitment practices and early talent programmes help us to bring curious, passionate people from every walk of life into our team.

We’re committed to ensuring that the impact of our business on our environment – and the communities we operate in – is a positive one. That means making sure that each event we run is the most sustainable it’s ever been. We also default all of our pension plans to sustainable options, so that our people’s savings are invested in ways that help rather than hinder our planet.

Helping people to connect and drive progress isn’t a business-only goal. We know that the world is a better place when we lead with heart, so we support charitable causes that make a difference. We provide opportunities to give back through Volunteer Days and our charity partnership with Media Trust.

We value output, not hours. Most of our roles ask for 1-2 days a week in your nearest office. But if that’s not possible for you, let’s talk. Flexible work conversations are actively encouraged here.

Only you know what’s most important to you. That’s why we offer a benefits and wellbeing package that you can tailor to your needs. Some of these include:

• 25 days of holiday per year – with an option to buy/sell up to 5 days.
• Pension, Life Assurance, and Income Protection.
• Access to either our commission, bonus, or profit share schemes, dependent on the role.
• Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance, Critical Illness, and the Ascential Shares Scheme.
• Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans, and cycle to work scheme.
• Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options.
• Learning and development opportunities, to encourage and empower everyone to grow.

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.

If we inspire you, why not join and inspire us? Find out more.

About Us

Getting to the heart of your industry.

We help the world’s biggest brands navigate what’s next through events, intelligence, and advisory.

Our two divisions, LIONS and Money20/20, serve the Marketing and Financial Technology industries. Our unforgettable events bring customers from over 120 countries together to have the conversations that count. And with almost 700 employees across four continents, our experts ensure that our customers never miss a beat.

Ascential plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

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