Building upon the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC)’s strong track record of delivery as the region’s investment promotion agency, additional funding has been secured to deliver the legacy programme for the Commonwealth Games to continue to attract visitors, investors, and events to the West Midlands. 

Working within the International Markets team as part of the wider inward investment function, the International Markets Manager will play a key role in driving the continued success of the West Midlands region. This is an exciting role with great exposure.

The International Markets Manager - will be responsible for lead generation, stakeholder relationship management and intermediary engagement activity across two to three of the key markets within Europe or North America. The role holder will maintain and actively develop relationships across a number of key trade organisations, multipliers and British diplomatic outposts (Post). Through this activity and associated relationship management, the International Markets Manager will help to raise awareness of the West Midlands’ Inward Investment proposition and secure advocacy and support from key partners, to generate a robust pipeline of qualified investment projects for the region. 

Main Responsibilities & Key Activities 

• Support the International Markets Lead on the development of an International Strategy for the WMGC, identifying the key market opportunities to attract inward investment from, the key stakeholders that must be influenced to ensure success, and the activities required to raise awareness of the West Midlands investment proposition, amongst both prospective FDI investors and key international stakeholders. 
• Play a key role in the delivery of international intermediary and stakeholder engagement on behalf of the WMGC, including, but not limited to, the overarching relationships with important DBT posts and Markets teams; trade and investment agencies in London acting on behalf of countries identified as primary markets for inward investment. 
• Work closely with WMGC’s appointed in-market representation partners, tasked with inward investment lead generation services in Australia, Canada, India, France, Germany, Malaysia Singapore & the USA. The post holder will be directly responsible for the contract management of 2 – 3 in-market rep. 
• Deputise for the International Markets Lead or the Leadership Team at WMGC to speak at local and international business conferences. 
• Plan and deliver VIP visits to the region that lead to perception change at a senior level, opening opportunities in areas such as innovation, air route development and civic engagement, and leveraging the visits to generate trade and investment opportunities for the region. 
• Undertake planned marketing and lead generation activities both nationally and internationally (trade fairs, exhibitions etc) to showcase the regional WMCA geography offer. 
• Be able to research and create presentations that assists the Leadership Team at WMGC in making decisions, particularly in the international areas. 
• Work closely with the Growth Company’s Inward Investment sector leads and cross-programme events teams, to scope, plan and deliver a number of effective inward-investment in-market campaigns. 
• Leverage the international footprint of key partners of the WMGC, including local authorities, commercial partners and the region’s universities, to drive awareness of the region’s inward investment opportunities.  
• Work closely with the Leadership Team at the WMGC to ensure consistent and effective achievement of contract objectives, providing flexible support to ensure the team targets are achieved. 
• Make efficient use of CRM systems and processes to record, monitor, review and refine business development strategies, together with marketing and communications programmes to fully exploit business opportunities both for the business and for the wider benefit of the region. 
• Build influence across the region for WMGC through its inward programmes within Midlands Engine, the Department for Business & Trade and other relevant national and international organisations and intermediaries to ensure that WMCA geography is perceived as a priority region for them to direct inward investment opportunities to.

You can view the full job description including key skills and competency requirements, here.

If you are interested in applying for this role, please send your CV to recruitment@wmgrowth.com