Public Affairs Roles

Dober Partners specialises in the recruitment of European public affairs staff within corporate affairs and association leadership teams.

Association Public Affairs

We recruit senior public affairs advocates for European trade associations based in Brussels.

Most associations exist to achieve specific advocacy goals. Indeed advocacy is the business and lifeblood of most associations.

Having the right spokespersons and efficient teamwork between members and secretariat are very important but timing is critical. Our research shows that ensuring effective process to make timely decisions and positions is the most important success factor for associations’ lobbying efforts. Being too late in the process is the main criticism of associations. Business cannot afford to wait for governments to come up with a legislative proposal, associations have to put down what they want ahead of time to have the most impact.

When we ask association leaders and members how they measure advocacy success the top three responses are; being consulted on policies before they are drafted; achievements versus planned/agreed actions; and reputation among high-level decision makers. For advocates to secure a place in the room having a trusted conversation with policy-makers requires special personality traits. In our experience people who are able to bring about change at a very high level commonly share three important personality attributes; trustworthiness; proactivity and resilience.  These are the kind of people we like to recruit.

Corporate Affairs

We recruit senior practitioners across Europe particularly in Belgium, Holland, France, Germany and Switzerland; and with our partners in other markets, including the UK.

We conduct and publish serious research into key corporate affairs recruitment issues, including on compensation and benefits.

In Brussels, the vast majority of EU corporate affairs staff are involved in public affairs and outreach to the EU institutions, anticipating threats and opportunities posed by EU policy, and advocating company positions.

Companies from 6 continents are represented in EU institutions. Over 2,100 multinational companies actively lobby the EU, and almost 600 have offices in or around Brussels. These companies originate from 38 countries and employ around 2,500 staff in key EU these functions.

Our team has previously recruited corporate affairs leaders for some of the world’s largest companies, including; Amadeus, Amundi, Astra Zeneca, FedEx, General Motors, GSK, Heidelberg Cement, Johnson & Johnson, LVMH, McDonald’s, Moët Hennessy, MSC Shipping, Novartis, RELX, Schroders, Syngenta and TUI Group.