Director, Events

Director, Events

Our Company

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest ecommerce company in the world. Booking.com is the largest business within Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and accounts for the vast majority of Booking Holdings’ total revenue. Booking Holdings is a leading Fortune 500 e-commerce conglomerate with a market cap of approximately $80 billion and revenues of $14.5 billion (2018). 

Booking.com currently employs more than 17,000 employees in 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide. With a mission to empower people to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. Booking.com connects travelers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses and even igloos. 

The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in over 40 languages, offer more than 28,984,513 total reported listings, and cover 142,259 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide. Each day, more than 1,550,000 room nights are reserved on its platform. So whether travelling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily with Booking.com, without booking fees and backed up by its promise to price match. Via the customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in over 40 languages, any time of the day or night. 

Financial and Operational Highlights

On 27 February 2019, Booking Holdings announced total revenues for the 4th quarter of 2018 were $3.2 billion, as compared to gross profit of $2.8 billion in the 4th quarter of 2017, a 16% increase from the prior year (approximately 21% on a constant-currency basis). 

Booking.com Leadership Team

Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Fogel                                                                                                       

SVP, Chief Finance Officer, Marcela Martin

SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Arjan Dijk

SVP, Head of Accommodations, Pepijn Rijvers

SVP, Chief Product Officer, David Vismans

SVP, General Counsel, Maria Barros

SVP, Commercial Operations & interim Chief People Officer, James Waters

For more information on the leadership biographies: please visit https://globalnews.booking.com/executive-biographies/

Profile Director, Events

We are currently looking for a world-class Director, Events to manage event accommodation programs starting with UEFA Euro 2020. The Director will manage the commercial team that focuses on lead generation and business development, the contracting and operations team and a program manager, who will particularly focus on aligning across product and media. The Director of Events will report to Carlo Olejniczak, Senior Director - Global Chains & Owner Groups.

This individual will work across various parts of the business, including (but not limited to) Availability, Pricing, Business Bookers, Strategic Partnerships, Partner Services and HR. This person will be responsible for the success of events business, starting with UEFA Euro 2020 and become the primary contact person for strategy, execution and day-to-day management of large event programs that go across Booking.com functions, bridging demand, supply and marketplace. 

As a business leader, this person will be expected to keep all stakeholders, including Leadership Team and Leadership Group members, up to date on the status of the programs and the results. In sum, this person will be at the forefront of the commercial event management program roadmap.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the commercial functions supporting delivery of events (lead generation, contracting and operations) and program management govern and oversee the successful delivery of the program’s output
• Manage relationships with principals and for different target groups (e.g. teams, broadcasters, press, staff, VIPs…) for each event
• Negotiate, together with the Director of Media, buying if sponsorship involved, all future deals and ensure alignment across commercial and media objectives of each sponsorship event.
• Secure rate sourcing and contracting of supply in a healthy financial environment, working closely with regional Partner Services teams
• Oversee and track cost-and contract management of program
• Identify, coordinate and oversee process management improvements for contracting
• Identify commercial opportunities and oversee new product and tooling development from a supply as well as demand side
• Work alongside product and development teams to get the right product at the right time
• Responsible for people management of a team of approximately 10, including a Team Leader
• Draft, execute and regularly report on all aspects of the assigned program
• Continually, keep all stakeholders across the business up to date on the program delivery

IDEAL EXPERIENCE:

• Strong commercial background (8-10+ years), including negotiating and managing complex commercial relationship
• People management experience (4+ years), including managing team leads and managers
• Strong project management skills with experience working across functions
• Ability to multi-task and flexible attitude
• Analytical profile, ability to structure and implement solid, scalable processes
• Expert in stakeholder management and communication
• Understanding of product building methods across the business
• Solution oriented and result driven
• Highly organized, pragmatic and results-focused 

OTHER PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Able to function in a fast-moving entrepreneurial environment
• A strategic thinker yet focused on execution; able to roll up the sleeves to get things done
• Self-starter with high energy and drive; fast paced and results driven; forward thinking
• Humble yet confident, with high self-awareness
• Experimental, ready to learn and open to change
• Keep the customer at the centre of everything you do
• Data driven
• Good cultural and organizational sensitivity
• Committed to building a diverse, inclusive work environment

CRITICAL LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES:

Leading Change

• Publicly identifies needed changes or directions that need adjustment, challenges assumptions and norms.
• The ability to “think big” and simultaneously understand and appreciate the details necessary to operationalize overarching strategies and goals; The ability to make sense of complex issues and ambiguous situations.
• Challenges assumptions about “the way things are done”.
• Communicates explicitly what must change, why changes are necessary, and possible outcomes and costs.
• Adjusts communication style to the audience to help them understand and accept the change.
• Encourages people to support and propose changes and ideas.

Building relationships, Collaborating and Influencing

• Establishes relationships and enhances the levels of cooperation, collaboration, and trust that exist between people, interacting with others personally, competently, and effectively. Establishes relationships inside and outside of the organization. Fosters a culture that makes people feel valued and respected and leverages even difficult or tense circumstances to enhance relationships.
• Negotiates with a genuine give-and-take approach, where both acts as true peers and decisions are shared.
• Spends time identifying all stakeholders necessary and meets or connects with all of them, neglecting no one to shape a collective consensus.
• Identifies opportunities to build relationships that will help others achieve their objectives and reaches out to those people or new people.

Driving Results

• Responds resourcefully, flexibly, and positively when faced with new challenges and demands. Willingly and effectively deals with the stress and complexities of various situations. Moves forward productively under conditions of change or uncertainty
• Demonstrates and fosters a sense of urgency, a “can-do” spirit, a sense of optimism, ownership, and strong commitment to achieving goals and organizational success. Demonstrates a strong sense of ownership and a commitment to achieving meaningful results.   
• Checks work of self and others against required quality standards.
• Reviews performance and progress on a regular basis to ensure team is achieving results.
• Tests to see if goals are sufficiently challenging and implements corrective action based on deviations.