Communications Specialist
Richard Ivey School of Business
Department: Marketing & Communications
Reports to: Manager, Media Relations & Public Relations
Location: London, Ontario
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF POSITION:
The purpose of this position is to design, coordinate, and implement media relations and communications that position the Ivey School of Business as an internationally recognized world-class business school. The Communications Specialist will contribute to the achievement of Ivey’s overall strategic goals by producing, implementing and coordinating external communications and coordinating media relations for the School. The position interacts daily with the Deans’ Office, faculty members, and senior staff on a wide variety of issues, many of which are confidential. Support to Ivey’s goals includes advancing brand recognition by increasing the number of stories/quotes about Ivey in the press and media.
KEY RESULT AREAS:
- Communicates (both proactively and reactively) daily with local, national and international media under extreme deadlines on research, issues and events to cement Ivey’s position as a world-class business school. This involves timely and efficient response to media inquiries and connecting Ivey’s expert sources to media; writing and distributing media releases; identifying trends in business news to proactively issue media commentaries; and establishing and building key relationships with the media.
- Develops and maintains relationships with students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Deans’ Office to develop proactive media relations strategies and tactics on a wide variety of issues.
- Builds general awareness and interest in Ivey by seeking out, synthesizing, writing and developing articles and story ideas for distribution to the press about complex issues and research conducted by Ivey faculty, events and announcements at the School, and student initiatives to promote the School as a world-class business educator.
- Helps prepare members of the faculty to deal effectively with the media and establish good relationships with them by offering training as requested or required.
- Provides support to the Manager, Media & Public Relations by producing, coordinating, and organizing communications such as announcements, media events and other miscellaneous material for the School.
- Produces news content for the Ivey News and Announcements pages of Ivey’s web site as well as content for Inside@Ivey.
- Communicates with the media and local community, as requested to offer information about the Ivey School of Business, its services and programs.
REQUIRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND ABILITIES:
- University degree in journalism, communications and/or marketing/public relations
- 3 to 5 years experience in producing communications materials and media relations
- Strong writing, editing and proofreading skills
- Demonstrated ability to make sound independent judgments
- The ability to prepare clear and concise written material under time pressures and deadlines
- Capable of coordinating multiple projects and ability to shift priorities on a daily basis; working with varied internal and external work styles
- Strong attention to detail and a commitment to excellence; professional in presence and manner
- Exceptional interpersonal skills and a desire to build excellent relationships within the Ivey community and outside the community with the media
- Flexibility to work irregular hours on occasion
- Strong understanding of print and broadcast media; existing media relationships an asset
- Familiarity posting updates on websites
This is a two year renewable employment contract with a comprehensive benefits package.
Qualified candidates should forward their applications in confidence to: hrresumes@ivey.ca before April 7, 2008. When applying, please indicate you found this job through IABC London .
