Director Operations-Dublin

Gerson Lehrman Group is a fast-growing technology and services firm which manages the world?s premier marketplace for independent expertise.  Since 1998, our platform for consultation and collaboration has helped the world?s leading financial services firms, consultancies, corporations, and nonprofits find, engage, and manage experts. Our experts, known as Council Members, cover a broad range of industries and disciplines. We have also built the industry?s most robust infrastructure for expert recruiting and compliance.  Our marketplace includes thousands of buyers; hundreds of thousands of sellers; and tens of thousands of individual transactions every month.  Our firm maintains offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New Delhi, Sydney, London, Zurich, and throughout the United States. 

To anchor the growth of our international operations, Gerson Lehrman Group is launching an operations hub in Dublin, Ireland.  Our Ireland office will develop the next generation of our global technology platform and global GLG Councils, and will also house legal, fulfillment, sales, finance, and accounting professionals to support our global operations.  A particular area of emphasis for the office will be Council and client support for our European, Mideast, and African experts and clients. 

Overview of the Role:

The Director of GLG Ireland will have several core responsibilities. 

·          First, the Director will help us launch our office, which we expect to reach 70 employees by the end of 2009.  The Director will be responsible for finding, evaluating, developing, and motivating high-caliber team members throughout the operation. 

·          Second, the Director will be expected to support the global IT, legal, finance, accounting, and sales operations located in Ireland, and coordinate with the New York-based and London-based teams with whom those employees will work. 

·          Third, the Director is expected to master and accelerate the extent to which Gerson Lehrman Group can deliver value to European-domiciled clients or global clients with inquiries related to Europe (defined broadly to include the Middle East, Russia, and Africa).  Together with the General Manager of the client-facing operation in London and Zurich, the Director of GLG Ireland will be responsible for the overall success of Gerson Lehrman Group?s European operation.  Success will be measured through project volume growth, client feedback, expansion of the GLG European expert network, product adoption, revenues, and profit growth.

The position requires a senior-level professional capable of:   

·          Team building and management:

o         Assisting in the candidate search and hiring a team of seasoned managers across multiple departments (finance, development, and research operations).  Outside of managers, many recruiting and client service hires will comprise entry-level generalists, including candidates with skills in various European languages, as well as a small number of experienced candidates from a broad array of industries. 

o         Mentoring managers, including managers with specific subject-matter expertise but less operational, client-facing, or commercial experience.

o         Developing robust training and quality control standards for on-boarding new employees, training them in GLG systems and project execution best practices, and maintaining best-in-class client service once the team is up and running.

o         Working with peers in other GLG offices and GLG?s Human Resources department to incorporate and customize GLG?s performance evaluation system for Ireland staff.

·          Client service and commercial leadership:

o         Project execution: Designing client-service strategies and organizational structures to ensure a streamlined and best-in-class experience for GLG clients serviced by Dublin professionals or tapping into GLG?s European expert network.  Commercially, the Director of GLG Ireland will have significant responsibility for ensuring specific transaction growth and quality standards are achieved throughout Europe.

o         Escalation handling: Interfacing with GLG clients, leading members of the GLG expert network, and multiple internal departments to handle escalations related to client service issues and other major firm initiatives.

o         Sales support: Communicating effectively with the GLG sales force and product managers in other European offices to describe GLG?s client service procedures and capabilities.

o         Product integration and collaboration: Collaborating with the NY-based Product, Technology, and Marketing leaders to launch new products or technologies in Europe taking regional concerns into account; training staff in articulating new GLG service concepts to clients; and tracking progress towards successful product adoption.  In addition, the Director of GLG Ireland should be able to propose for GLG?s in-person events series in Europe and assist in building task forces to execute those where necessary.

o         Relationship building: Launching relationship building, retention, and other communications campaigns designed to extend the reach of the GLG Councils in Europe and win expert loyalty to the GLG consulting platform.  A personal intensity and impact to build trust-based and substantive relationships with clients, GLG experts, and prospects on both sides of the GLG expertise marketplace. 

o         Entrepreneurialism: An entrepreneurial orientation to assist, as GLG continues to grow rapidly, with the evolving articulation of the most appropriate targets, product development priorities, specific success criteria, and working relationships across multiple offices and groups.

·          The expectation is that the Director of GLG Ireland will spend 80%+ of their time in Ireland, with the remainder spent coordinating related operations activities throughout Europe and crafting best practices with GLG operations leaders around the world.  

·          The Director of GLG Ireland will also be expected to work closely with GLG?s operation in New Delhi, India, which provides parallel support to GLG?s European operations. 

·          At this time, GLG expects the Dublin office to grow to 70 employees within year-1 of operation.  The Director of GLG Ireland will be responsible for line management of 5-8 Functional Leaders in Dublin; supporting professional development of Associates in Dublin, Ireland and in New Delhi, India; and working effectively with sales, operational, commercial, product management, marketing, and legal professionals in Europe and other GLG offices globally. 

Candidate profile:

Gerson Lehrman Group attracts employees from the most distinctive professional and academic Across all of our positions, we insist upon integrity, creativity, intensity, flexibility, and professionalism.

For this specific position, the following factors will strengthen an applicant?s candidacy: 

·          5-10 years of experience following their graduate degree in consulting, financial services, or exchange models such as eBay.  

·          Demonstrated performance in an operations management role with some or all of the following characteristics:

o         Success working in complex multi-task team environments, especially across multiple time zones, languages, and cultures

o         A successful track record in hiring and building a business unit within a larger organization, especially in managing large pools of young professionals

o         Success in a business built upon a ?two-sided marketplace? (e.g., an exchange, software platform, or executive search model)

o         Leadership of managers (i.e., leadership of managers with their own subject-matter or functional expertise)

·          Demonstrated effectiveness in some or all of the following areas:

o         Leading business-to-business client service teams

o         Sales, negotiation, or networking with high-end professionals, including experience designing outbound telephone communications campaigns

o         Successful exploitation of technology to expand networks or communities in Europe

·          European Union work permit is required; experience with direct client service and operations in greater Europe is a plus; extensive experience in Ireland is a strong plus.    

Notes: Gerson Lehrman Group does not allow employees to trade stocks or any other security that may present a conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest. GLG also requires that all employees sign a non-compete agreement with our firm. We conduct checks on all prospective new hires. 

Follow-up:

Please email a resume and cover letter to: Deb Barker, Human Resources Director at deb@glgroup.com