About us
Founded in 2003 in Dubai, LINKVIVA is an award-winning events and experiential agency striving for precision in design and delivery through relentless pursuit of innovation and creativity.
From a series of regional and international recognitions to being awarded as a great place to work, we continue to grow and innovate as a team and as a business.
About our projects
LINKVIVA works on a wide range of projects throughout the year including sales centres, festivals, ceremonies, mass participation sports events and conferences. We have a number of loyal clients built up over the years, and we actively pitch for new client accounts to expand our portfolio and grow our business. We pride ourselves on understanding what our clients actually want, and presenting them with creative, innovative solutions that deliver the results they need, on time and on budget.
About the role
The Commercial Director is responsible for leading our business development, client services and sponsorship teams in our UAE and Saudi Arabia offices. We are looking for an individual with a proven track record in driving revenue, building strong client relationships, and securing sponsorship agreements.
Specifically, the Commercial Director should:
- Lead the business development team, identifying potential new clients, securing meetings, presenting our portfolio and creating new project opportunities.
- Lead the client services team, strengthening and developing relationships with existing clients to form closer partnerships and generate new project opportunities.
- Lead the sponsorship team, creating innovative and engaging sponsorship opportunities with relevant brands and organizations that add tangible value to the sponsor, to the event and to LINKVIVA.
- Develop the sponsorship team into an independent revenue-generating department within the agency.
- Lead negotiations with clients to secure profitable agreements for the agency.
- Create a strong project pipeline from new and existing clients.
- Promote an account management approach throughout the agency, ensuring clients receive consistency across all operational departments.
- Ensure we regularly receive client feedback to continually enhance our services.
- Work closely with new and existing clients to understand what they want vs. what they need, ensuring we maintain our high retention and conversion scores.
- Identify and convert opportunities to add value to our projects by integrating additional agency services within project briefs.
- Take a strategic approach to new business, identifying opportunities that maximise value and growth for the agency in the medium to long-term.
- Maintain our CRM platform and use it to identify opportunities for new business, growth or efficiencies.
- Identify and convert opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling between event and sponsorship clients.
- Work closely with other departments to identify and maximise commercial opportunities.
- Champion close cooperation between our UAE and Saudi Arabia offices.
- Manage team resources to ensure we have the capacity and skillset required to service upcoming projects.
- Assist with recruiting, onboarding, training, managing and offboarding the project team.
- Create and manage workflows and processes to ensure the smooth operation of the business development, client services and sponsorship teams.
- Be an active part of the senior management team, helping to set, track and achieve goals for the agency.
About you
You should be:
- An experienced Senior Business Development, Client Services or Sponsorship Manager ready to take the next step in your career, or a Commercial Director looking for your next opportunity.
- An excellent leader. You will be expected to nurture and develop talent, and to support your team members.
- Able to demonstrate your previous success in strategic commercial growth project including creating new business opportunities, developing existing client relationships and identifying and converting additional commercial channels.
- Professional, independent and self-motivated, with a strong sense of urgency and the ability to drive a project to successful completion.
- Experienced and skilled in organizing complex pipelines with lots of moving parts.
- Able to present with confidence and presence.
- A skilled communicator, able to consult with internal and external stakeholders to agreed actions, outcomes and targets within a collaborative environment.
- Knowledgeable about event production, content, operations and logistics.
As a minimum, you should have:
- 10+ year’s commercial experience in an event or agency environment.
- A proven history of driving revenue growth.
- Previous experience working in the Middle East.
- A valid driving license.
- Fluent written and spoken English.
Your application will be stronger if:
- You have previously led a business development team.
- You have previously led a client services team.
- You have previously led a sponsorship team.
- You can speak, read and write Arabic.