UFI – The Global Association for the Exhibition Industry, is looking for a:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Function based in the UFI Headquarters in Paris, France
- Hybrid work
ABOUT UFI
We are UFI – The Global Association for the Exhibition Industry. With members in around 90 countries, we directly represent more than 50,000 industry employees. We serve as a pivotal force in shaping policies, fostering collaboration, and driving innovation within the events industry through our activities around events, education, research, and advocacy.
The exhibition industry is known as an “invisible giant”, fostering economic development globally: 4.5 million companies from all around the world are exhibiting at business trade shows. An average of 85 major international trade shows are taking place daily, attracting a total of 303 million visitors. This creates an economic impact of around 275 billion euro annually in total output, and 167 billion euros in total GDP. The industry directly supports 1.3 million jobs.
UFI is headquartered in Paris, France. We share presences in Brussels and Washington, DC, to address policy matters. We operate regional offices in Hong Kong (China), Dubai (UAE), New York (USA), and Bogota (Colombia). We also collaborate with regional associations and consultants to serve the industry.
UFI’s work is centered around four activity pillars: Events, Education, Research, and Advocacy. A short summary is available here. For a more detailed overview of activities for members see here.
UFI is led by a volunteer leadership comprised of senior executives elected into office by the global membership. For an overview of the leadership structure see here.
ABOUT THE POSITION
The Chief Executive Officer is one of the two most senior management roles in the association. In tandem with the Chief Operations Officer, the CEO is responsible for UFI activities and events globally and the operation of its Paris headquarters and the offices and presences worldwide.
The CEO has the overall administrative, financial, and strategic responsibility for the activities of UFI. The CEO also has operational responsibility for some of UFI’s main activity pillars according to the alignment of responsibilities between the CEO and COO.
OBJECTIVES OF THIS ROLE
- Make strategic and financial decisions that determine the trajectory of the company
- Manage the company’s overall development and ensure that general operations run seamlessly as employees accomplish established goals
- Monitor budgets, resources, and procedures
- Create a positive company culture through strong, inspirational, compassionate leadership
- Maintain and evolve a strong service ethic that allows UFI to contribute significantly to the success of its members and the global exhibition industry and the wider business events community.
- Be the key representative of the company in communicating important decisions to leadership, stakeholders, and the wider public
- Represent the association as necessary towards other industry and policy stakeholders, fostering and maintaining a world-class network of contacts to relevant representatives
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Define, develop, implement and monitor the association’s overall strategy and the annual budget, both short-term and long-term
- Oversee business activities to ensure they produce the desired results and are consistent with the overall strategy and mission
- Report to the volunteer leadership and keep them informed as required
- Oversee communications with internal and external stakeholders
- Maintain UFI’s current position as a driver of innovation and key opinion leader within the business events industry
- Enforce adherence to legal guidelines, the association’s statutes and in-house policies to maintain the association‘s legality and business ethics
- Ensure all legal and regulatory documents are filed and monitor compliance with laws and regulations
- Assess business risks and ensure that they are monitored and minimised
- Collaborate with the team to identify meaningful solutions
- Lead ongoing development of the company’s culture and vision
- Develop, lead and motivate a high-performing team in Paris and globally
- Create an environment that promotes outstanding performance and positive morale
- Create a culture of learning to help enhance and grow the skills and abilities of company staff
ABOUT THE CANDIDATE
The right candidate for this position will meet the following criteria:
- Masters Degree or similar in a field of relevance for this position, or Bachelors Degree with proven level of experience in senior management roles
- A proven track record of senior leadership positions on Board level, preferably including senior positions in the business events industry (specifically exhibition organisers), and/or including CEO or equivalent positions in leading industry associations.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
- Comfortable with public speaking
- Strong leadership, collaboration, and team management abilities,
- proven track record in successfully moderating decision-making processes to generally agreed outcomes
- A proven entrepreneurial spirit / commercial mindset
- Ability to work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders and multicultural teams.
- Broad language skills, native speaker level English (spoken and written) is the priority, as English is the working language of the association. Good French skills. Good additional language skills in any of the following are a plus: German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese.
- High proficiency with digital office and collaboration tools like MS Teams, etc
- Willingness to travel extensively internationally
- Permitted to work in the European Union.
HOW TO APPLY
Please send your application to UFI, jobs@ufi.org, citing reference “CEO 2024”. Applications should include a letter of motivation, a CV, two references, and the expected salary level.