The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) is a neutral and independent multistakeholder platform hosted by the Forum that aims to eradicate plastic pollution. It works through both a global and national platform, bringing together public, private, and civil society leaders to develop joint solutions to the plastic pollution crisis, which are both pragmatic and ambitious.

Why we are recruiting

The World Economic Forum is host to the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), which is a public-private collaboration platform to help translate political and corporate commitment to address plastic pollution into concrete action plans. GPAP has been established in collaboration with the governments of Canada and United Kingdom, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the World Resources Institute, as well as businesses along the plastics value chain. GPAP harnesses the convening power of the World Economic Forum to bring together governments, businesses and civil society to collaboratively identify and scale solutions to the issue of plastics waste pollution.

The GPAP platform is designed to bring together a diverse and committed group of stakeholders and decision-makers, providing an opportunity to coordinate action, amplify efforts and catalyse impact to address the plastic waste and pollution crisis. At the global level, GPAP and the Forum have served as leading conveners of multistakeholder conversations related to the global plastic treaty process underway. At the country level, GPAP supports multistakeholder platforms in 16 countries, with additional partnerships expected in the months ahead. A central element of GPAP’s global engagement is to engage and drive value for business stakeholders relevant to addressing the plastic pollution challenge.

Reporting lines and interactions

The Business Engagement Specialist will be based at the World Economic Forum’s Geneva or New York office, within the Global Plastic Action Partnership team, reporting to the Lead, Business Engagement and Global Action Plan.

Main responsibilities include:

Business engagement

• Supports the Business Engagement and Global Action Plan Lead in developing and delivering GPAP’s business engagement strategy

• Support business engagement efforts by scheduling, preparing and ensuring follow-ups from relevant internal and external business engagement meetings. This includes touchpoints with key businesses, relevant industry coalitions/associations, Forum-internal business relationship managers and other relevant colleagues. This also includes documenting all interactions in Forum’s systems

• Support the development of GPAP engagement materials tailored to business audiences

• Supports project management and coordination on GPAP’s business-focused communities and initiatives

• Lead on gathering and mapping data and insights related to business engagement

• Engage in ad-hoc research on business issues as required.

• Support Business Engagement and Global Action Plan Lead and the National Partnership Lead with gathering insights, best practices from the NPAP countries. This will also include mapping, analysis of local business engagement in the different NPAP

• Responsible for updating the team on key institutional processes and requirements related to business engagement

• For every-day coordination, serve as institutional (Forum) focal point for GPAP business engagement questions

Other

• On an ad-hoc basis, provides support to the GPAP team in other areas as required and appropriate, such as supporting global events, improving internal knowledge management or providing administrative support.

The successful candidate will be assessed on

• Passion for/interest in business strategy, corporate impact agendas and public-private collaboration

• Excellent project management skills, including managing complex topics and balancing competing priorities

• Ability to effectively coordinate and structure information

• Proactive and positive mindset to work across team priorities and committed to finding solutions to potential issues that arise

Preferred requirements and experience

• University-level education 2 to 5 years of relevant work experience working with stakeholders from varied backgrounds,

• Private sector experience within multinational company, preferably having worked in business management, marketing or sales organisation. Experience in packaging development as part of new product development and their launch plans primarily FMCG would be a plus

• Experience in project management, budget management, P&L management is desired

• Strong analytical skills, and the ability to communicate complex information succinctly

• Outstanding organization and time management skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; fluency in spoken and written English

• Quick learner, self-starting, service and detail-oriented, and able to work independently as well as in a team

• Willing to work in a highly demanding environment and able to juggle multiple priorities

• Understanding of, and interest in, the environmental agenda and work program

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!