Director / Principal, Geopolitical & Country Risk

Control Risks supports private equity and credit, infrastructure and real assets, real estate, sovereign wealth, and development and multilateral funds, with a range of consulting services. These include transaction-specific diligence, encompassing sector- or country-specific political and policy risk intelligence and advisory, as well as assessments focusing on financial crime, reputation and performance, material ESG factors, and cyber risks associated with an investment target and its management. We also provide broader proactive and reactive risk management services for our client’s portfolio companies and assets.

The successful candidate would join a leading geopolitical and political risk intelligence and advisory team, with over 100 analysts and consultants around the globe. Moreover, the successful applicant would be expected to work very closely with other practice areas in Control Risks, particularly with colleagues from our Intelligence & Investigations team. The role is central to delivering our growth objectives related to private markets investors with Europe coverage.

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.

• 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
• Willingness to travel.

• Control Risks offers a competitively positioned compensation and benefits package that is transparent and summarised in the full job offer.
• We operate a discretionary global bonus scheme that incentivises, and rewards individuals based on company and individual performance.
• Control Risks supports hybrid working arrangements, wherever possible, that emphasise the value of in-person time together - in the office and with our clients - while continuing to support flexible and remote working.
• As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us and are fully committed to equal treatment, free from discrimination, of all candidates throughout our recruitment process.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made in order to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know and we will be happy to accommodate your needs.