Chief Strategy and Growth Officer

About the organisation

The Institute of Directors (IoD) is New Zealand’s foremost professional association for directors and sits at the centre of the governance ecosystem. Its work is focused on lifting governance standards, influencing the future of governance in Aotearoa New Zealand, and supporting directors through complexity so they can make better decisions and deliver positive outcomes across business and society.

IoD promotes governance excellence by setting high standards of practice, anticipating and responding to the evolving needs of directors, establishing the benchmark for governance education in Aotearoa, and enabling directors to strengthen their organisations.

Role purpose

The Chief Strategy and Growth Officer is a senior leadership position responsible for shaping and delivering organisational strategy, building IoD’s brand and partnerships, and strengthening its position as a leading governance voice in Aotearoa New Zealand. This role drives growth across partnerships, national events, and commercial learning offerings, ensuring programmes are informed by the market and designed for the future.

The role also oversees the teams responsible for brand, marketing and content, strategic partnerships and business development, and learning delivery operations. It calls for a creative, future-focused mindset, strong commercial judgement, leadership capability, and a commitment to meaningful change in governance.

Values

IoD’s values are Courage, Support, Stewardship, Individual responsibility, and Lifelong learning.

Key responsibilities

• Help build a resilient, innovative, high-performing organisation that is recognised as a leader in good governance.
• Work with the senior leadership team, board, council, branch network, and other stakeholders to shape, execute, and deliver strategy and annual plans, while taking ownership of progress in assigned areas.
• Provide clear and accurate reporting to the chief executive, board, and council on relevant matters.
• Lead, coach, and support direct reports so they can achieve their goals and guide their teams effectively.
• Offer strategic insight, advice, constructive challenge, and partnership to the chief executive, leadership team, board, and council.
• Lead strategy planning, target-setting, tracking, and implementation.
• Sponsor or lead agreed strategic and special initiatives such as new commercial programmes, new membership markets, or improvements to digital experience.
• Own brand strategy, including positioning, promise, identity, and overall reputation management.
• Protect and strengthen the organisation’s brand, including actioning remediation where needed.
• Oversee market research for marketing, members, and customers, and turn insights into growth, engagement, segmentation, and solution strategies.
• Guide development of content streams that increase engagement with members and the wider governance community.
• Identify brand and communications risks and ensure suitable mitigation plans are in place.
• Oversee content strategy across quality, positioning, and distribution, including website, social media, and direct marketing channels.
• Lead corporate communications strategy, including planning, media positioning, spokesperson preparation, and crisis communications.
• Ensure IoD maintains a credible and influential presence in media and with key stakeholders to support policy, advocacy, and thought leadership efforts.
• Develop and strengthen strategic relationships that extend IoD’s influence across governance and business networks.
• Spot opportunities for partnership growth and lead proposal development that clearly communicates IoD’s value and potential.
• Direct sponsorship strategy and growth, including finding and negotiating new sponsorship opportunities.
• Work with the chief executive, leadership team, and corporate communications lead on a stakeholder engagement plan.
• Own profit and loss responsibility for Sponsorship, National Events, and the Professional Development portfolio, including courses, in-house learning, and online learning.
• In collaboration with portfolio leads and cross-functional teams, create commercial strategies and new products based on market insight and governance best practice.
• Support growth in commercial partnerships and major proposals, ensuring offerings are financially sound and aligned with IoD’s purpose and ambitions.
• Bring together IoD’s intellectual property, knowledge, services, and products to better meet client needs.
• Oversee the planning and delivery of the annual Leadership Conference and other key events such as director and chair forums.
• Ensure professional development programmes are engaging, innovative, high quality, and aligned to director best-practice expectations and customer needs.
• Work closely with the Learning Team so market intelligence informs new learning products and commercially viable offerings are developed.
• Maintain strong planning, budgeting, and resource allocation across the portfolio.
• Embed practical processes, quality assurance, and vendor/contract management.
• Contribute positively to a collaborative, high-performing one-team culture focused on outcomes, impact, and value for members and customers.
• Prioritise health, safety, and wellbeing for self and others.
• Carry out other reasonable duties needed to fulfil the position.

Candidate profile

The ideal candidate will have a tertiary qualification, preferably in marketing or communications, along with several years of general management experience reporting to a chief executive. They should bring strong experience in brand development and stewardship, marketing and communications, media engagement, and content creation including online production. Experience leading organisational strategy and building high-performance teams is also important.

This role requires strong strategic thinking, the confidence to drive innovation and change, and the ability to act as the organisation’s digital and content voice. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills are essential, as is the ability to represent IoD professionally and diplomatically with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

The successful candidate will also be culturally aware, capable of forming authentic and respectful relationships across diverse backgrounds, and comfortable using research, data, metrics, and analytics to inform decisions. Strong reporting, prioritisation, and collaboration skills are essential, as is a sharp focus on quality, delivery, and results.

Additional information

The responsibilities of this role may change over time as IoD responds to shifts in its operating environment. The position description will be updated when needed, and the successful candidate will need to remain flexible and adapt as required.

Authority

The Chief Strategy and Growth Officer is authorised to make decisions and take action on matters relating to the role’s responsibilities and deliverables, in line with IoD policy, delegated authority, and approved budget.