PR Business Unit Director

Strategic and Account Leadership‍

Deliver data- and insights-led strategies that drive ROI, identify market opportunities, and ensure award-winning outputs.

• lead multi-sector strategic communications portfolios (Anglo American, NTT DATA, Eduvos, Life Healthcare, AfriGIS, Milken-Motsepe Prize).
• Direct strategy-to-activation pipelines, from insights and content creation to media, stakeholder engagement, and measurement.
• Developed and implemented strategic narrative frameworks, messaging houses, and risk matrices that link directly to ROI, stakeholder trust, and reputation metrics.
• regularly produce award-entry case studies and thought-leadership campaigns, reflecting the “make clients famous” expectation.

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Client Management and Relationship Stewardship

Maintain senior client relationships (marketing managers to CMO level), ensure satisfaction, and drive commercial KPI delivery.

• Operate as client lead and trusted advisor to executive-level stakeholders (e.g., Amantha Naidoo, Dr Riaan Steenberg, Siegie).
• Manage retainer performance, commercial scope, and contractual KPIs across several major corporate clients.
• Lead quarterly business reviews, thought-leadership calendars, and reputation dashboards akin to media and campaign QBRs.

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Data, Insights, and Media Intelligence

Use data to guide strategy, oversee reporting, and collaborate with analytics and media buying teams.

• integrate research partnerships (CRA, Bloomberg, Moneyweb) to inform campaign direction and measure brand impact.
• Manage strategic reporting frameworks with RAG status, KPIs, and trend insights across client portfolios.

Financial, Operational, and Delivery Excellence

Own the financial health, forecasting, billing, and operational adherence of the business unit.

• manage multi-million-rand portfolios with accountability for budget forecasting, reporting, and client profitability.
• oversee scope delivery, SLAs, team utilisation, and billable time management paralleling Up&Up group’s financial management framework.
• are deeply involved in contract renewal and pricing strategy discussions alongside agency leadership (Sharleen, Dustin, Paula, etc.).

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Team Leadership and Talent Development

Lead and mentor team; manage resourcing, performance, and professional growth.

• Lead multi-level teams providing daily direction and coaching.
• Conduct performance check-ins, onboarding, and mentoring programmes, aligned with a high-performance culture.
• Actively develop internal frameworks/ support the tam implementation (e.g., Razor Execution Model: Plan → Create → Activate → Measure → Refine).

Integrated Agency Collaboration

Collaborate across creative, PR, digital, and media partners and across Up&Up Growth.

• Operate in fully integrated account ecosystems, aligning Razor PR with creative, media, and brand teams.
• Facilitate industry events, cross-agency workshops, content calendars, and messaging housing to ensure unified execution.
• Direct and quality-control multi-agency deliverables, ensuring consistency and alignment to client brand strategy.

Awards, Case Studies, and Reputation

Deliver award-winning work and produce case studies showcasing measurable outcomes.

• lead award entries (PRISM, SABRE, Smarties, etc.), developing polished case studies that demonstrate business impact.
• curate executive visibility strategies and thought-leadership platforms that double as brand reputation drivers and award assets.

Technical and Analytical Proficiency

Strong numerical, presentation, and data analytics ability with advanced PowerPoint and Excel.

• highly proficient in PowerPoint, Excel, and data storytelling, creating presentation-ready executive materials (board packs, dashboards, risk alerts, messaging houses).
• Apply analytical frameworks (RAG, stakeholder matrices, sentiment dashboards, KPI tracking) that parallel data reporting and media optimisation systems.

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