Director / Principal, Geopolitical & Country Risk at Control Risks

This role is responsible for leading the implementation of our strategy with private markets investors in the UK and Western Europe more broadly to position Control Risks as a leading advisor on political, regulatory and policy risk to private market clients.

Role tasks and responsibilities

• Client management and business development
• Refine and implement our private markets business development campaign to position Control Risks as a specialist provider of policy and regulatory diligence.
• Identify and acquire new points of contact with new and existing clients, and manage these relationships to best meet our client’s requirements for both transaction and portfolio company support.
• Achieving year-on-year growth in our client base, and increase the number, diversity and complexity of our mandates.
• Develop our relationships with industry associations and professional advisors, and evaluate the best events and networks to engage, to raise awareness of our brand and services among private market investors.
• Develop and maintain a public profile in the industry as an expert in your specialist field through public speaking and written thought leadership.
• Case and project work
• Ensure our proposals focus on our clients’ requirements and our ability to meet them, and that our proposals stay ahead of the market by incorporating clients’ feedback and service innovation.
• Lead more complicated engagements for private markets investors, drawing in Control Risks’ expertise from different practices as required.
• Build and maintain policy/regulatory monitoring across priority jurisdictions, particularly the UK, and sectors relevant to our clients.
• Develop and manage a human source and subcontractor network to support the growth of the practice and the delivery of our work.
• Align closely with colleagues working on the region to expand our source and subcontractor networks to meet market demand.
• Working culture
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative environment between practice areas, offices and regions.
• Coordinate closely with the Head of Private Markets and Financial Sponsors, as well as other colleagues with a private markets investor remit.
• Ensure that pricing, margins, value of our work and strategic objectives regarding the buyer group are understood in the team to grow our client base and deliver on revenue and profit targets.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience advising investors on UK and EU policy and regulatory change and related commercial impacts, including a strong ability to communicate clear recommendations to clients, even under time pressure.
• Experience with supporting clients on highly regulated, policy-sensitive sectors, such as energy, infrastructure, defence, telecoms, healthcare/life sciences, financial services and/or digital technologies.
• Ability to source information on the evolution of policy, regulation and enforcement trends, to interpret regulation and enforcement guidance, including at draft stages and to translate findings into actionable intelligence for our clients.
• Access to a large network of reliable, credible sources in policy circles in the UK, specific European markets and/or Brussels.
• Achieving and sustaining trusted advisor relationships with senior-decision makers within the defined buyer group.
• Identifying and growing new client relationships, and growing a practice area around this.
• Innovating services and successfully taking these to clients.
• Demonstrating in-depth knowledge and understanding of political, economic, societal, regulatory and technology trends affecting private markets investors and their risk considerations.
• Master’s degree or equivalent.
• 10 years of full-time professional experience in winning and delivering political risk or policy and regulatory focused advisory work.
• Professional experience in private markets, investment banking, or corporate M&A.