Manager, Events & Sponsorship
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) · Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
JOB SUMMARY / INTRODUCTION:
Manage the planning, coordination, and execution of FAB's events, sponsorships, client engagement platforms, and strategic activations. The role supports the delivery of high-quality experiences that strengthen FAB's brand positioning, deepen stakeholder and client relationships, and contribute to measurable business, brand, community, and employee engagement outcomes.
The Manager is responsible for assigned initiatives across the full lifecycle, including planning, stakeholder coordination, budget tracking, vendor management, sponsorship activation, governance compliance, and post-event evaluation.
Operates in a fast-paced environment requiring strong project management, stakeholder management, commercial judgment, and attention to detail.
Requires regular interaction with senior executives, business units, government entities, external partners, suppliers, and key clients.
Manages multiple concurrent initiatives and must maintain quality, control, and consistency across event and sponsorship delivery.
Expected to represent FAB professionally at core events and maintain a strong external network relevant to FAB's events and sponsorship portfolio.
Plays an important role in enhancing FAB's brand positioning, client engagement, community presence, and business development support through high-impact experiences.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Manage end-to-end delivery of assigned corporate events, sponsorship activations, client engagements, executive events, conferences, hospitality programmes, and internal engagement initiatives.
- Translate business and stakeholder requirements into clear event plans, timelines, budgets, production briefs, run-of-shows, guest journeys, and delivery milestones.
- Coordinate all event touchpoints, including venue management, logistics, production, protocol, branding, registration, hospitality, content coordination, and guest experience.
- Ensure assigned events are delivered to the expected quality standards, agreed timelines, approved budgets, and defined objectives.
- Support the evaluation of sponsorship opportunities against strategic relevance, target audience, brand fit, rights value, business impact, and expected return.
- Manage the activation of assigned sponsorships and ensure contractual rights and benefits are delivered, tracked, and optimized.
- Work with organizers, rights holders, agencies, and internal teams to maximize FAB visibility, client engagement, employee engagement, community reach, and brand impact.
- Maintain sponsorship trackers, calendars, deliverables, approvals, and post-activation evidence.
- Partner with internal business units, senior stakeholders, Marketing, Communications, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Finance, and external partners to ensure joined-up delivery.
- Act as a key point of contact for assigned projects, providing clear updates, recommendations, issue escalation, and post-event reporting.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with government entities, event organizers, suppliers, agencies, and strategic partners.
- Mobilize internal contributors and external resources to support pre-event, live-event, and post-event communication and delivery requirements.
- Manage purchase requests, supplier onboarding, invoices, and cost tracking in line with FAB procurement and financial governance requirements.
- Ensure all activities comply with FAB policies, brand guidelines, approval processes, legal, compliance, risk, and regulatory requirements.
- Identify project risks, dependencies, and operational issues early and support mitigation plans.
- Prepare post-event and post-sponsorship reports capturing objectives, outcomes, attendance, client engagement, brand visibility, budget performance, lessons learned, and recommendations.
- Track performance indicators such as client engagement, lead generation, media value, brand exposure, rights utilization, community reach, employee engagement, and stakeholder satisfaction where applicable.
- Maintain accurate records, dashboards, calendars, and supporting documentation for portfolio visibility and senior management reporting.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, sustainability, supplier performance, event formats, and attendee experience.
- Functions within the framework and boundaries of Group policies as well as overall organizational and governance frameworks.
REQUIREMENTS / QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Event Management, Public Relations, or a related discipline.
- Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in events, sponsorships, marketing, communications, stakeholder engagement, or project management, ideally within financial services, government, or a large corporate environment.