Business Support Executive

Business Support Executive

Guinness Open Gate Brewery London

Location: Covent Garden, London

Permanent, Full Time

Closing Date: April 8, 2025

About Us

The Guinness Open Gate Brewery London new Guinness neighbourhood in London that will inspire the best in brewing, food, retail and culture. Consisting of 52,000 square feet of heritage buildings and central courtyard in the historic brewing quarter in Covent Garden, OBY will become a key growth driver for Guinness, placing the brand in culture, driving relevancy and brand saliency amongst a new generation of drinkers. GB is the biggest Guinness market globally and Guinness is enjoying a period of exceptional growth and cultural magnetism, with the brand growing by around 50% since 2019 to the biggest it has ever been in value, volume and market share in the brand's 264-year history.

About the Role

The role will report into the MD. The role will provide proficient executive assistant and project management support to the MD and Leadership Team in our business. This is a varied and challenging role which requires a high degree of proactivity, tenacity, flexibility, initiative, passion and confidentiality. This role will be critical to the smooth running of the business with ample opportunities to grow and maximise the impact of the leaders and teams you support. It is a varied role in a very high-profile business.

In addition to supporting both the MD and Leadership Team, there will be a requirement from time to time to support the broader team with specific pre-agreed projects.

The nature of this role includes frequent orchestration with senior Diageo colleagues. This also implies handling highly confidential and sensitive information with the utmost discretion. Exercise sound judgment, diplomacy, integrity, confidentiality, and professionalism in communicating information and working with all levels of colleagues and internal/external stakeholders.

Location

Key elements of the site include:

• Iconic Guinness Gates as main entrance to the experience, offering huge cultural impact in the heart of London.

• Restaurants/Taproom/bars - world class food and beer produced and served on site.

• Central all weather historic courtyard with world class bar experience.

• Retail spaces, one of which will stock items produced through exciting short-term brand collaborations.

• Bespoke 5th floor glass box rooftop eating and drinking experience creating brand new rooftop view of London.

• Brewery and beer experience/tasting tours.

• Cultural events space designed and fitted out with technology to enable world class meeting and conference experiences

You will be responsible for:

• Assisting with the priorities of the MD and supporting long term business objectives. Implementing processes to optimise MDs time. Acting as a liaison for direct reports and key colleagues to MD

• Managing and effectively prioritising complex calendars and scheduling needs

• Maintaining and tracking MDs deliverables with regard to key priorities, KPI's and workstreams

• making decisions on behalf of MD, based on shifting business priorities to ensure accurate scheduling and appropriate allocation of time. Responding rapidly to shifting short term priorities

• Partnering closely with Leadership team to manage the rhythm of the business and proactively plan out workstream milestones and checkpoints

• Building and maintaining a solid overview of all ongoing company objectives and priorities

• Liaising with the reservations team and other colleagues to manage all VIP internal and external Brand Homes visits with full responsibility for decision making on itineraries including restaurant reservations. Managing the gift and entertainment register in line with Company Policy. Liaising with legal team to get approval for all relevant client and government entertainment in IBH.

• Liaising with other internal/external stakeholders, in particular senior tourism and city stakeholders and handle all requests and meetings professionally and in a timely manner

• Ensuring all Purchase Orders, invoices and expenses are completed in a timely, accurate and compliant manner

• The timely management of expenditure, gifting and entertainment reports via Concur, ensuring a thorough filing and reference system is in place for designated team members

Key Stakeholders

The role reports into the Managing Director, GOGBL. The role holder will need to build a relationship and work closely with relevant colleagues responsible for the growth strategy in Guinness and the wider Diageo GB team.

Qualifications and Experience Required

• Demonstration of high performance: up to 5 years in an Executive Assistant role at senior level or 3 plus years in a senior project manager role

• Experience of Microsoft Office Suite including Outlook, Teams, Tasks, PowerPoint, Excel, Project Planning and comfortable using technology, software and digital systems to drive efficiency and clarity in this role

• Experience of preparing and managing project workstreams, timelines and tasks lists and holding people to account for same

• Demonstrated ability to work independently on projects, from conception to completion, and must be able to work under pressure.

• Proficient in digital and virtual meeting tools with an appetite to learn and embrace new technology

• Experience of successfully organising and running internal and external team events, including quarterly and annual awards events and team motivation sessions. Ability to think outside the box to organise unique team events welcomed

• Experience of working across tourism, events, sports, culture or hospitality would be an advantage

Working with Us

Flexibility is key to success in our business and many of our people work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, compressed hours, flexible location. Please talk to us about what flexibility means to you and don't let anything stop you from applying.

• We offer a highly competitive rewards and benefits package including:Contemporary work life balance policies and wellbeing activities

• Annual merit increases (performance based)

• Annual bonus (performance based)

• Subsidized gym membership

• Contributary pension scheme

• Share options

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and listened to, is a crucial part of this.

We believe the most diverse and inclusive culture makes for a better business and a better world.

We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realise its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base.

Around the world we have a number of inclusive Business and Employee Resource Groups known as BRGs and ERGs. These influential groups, made up of our people, represent variousviewpoints, experiences andcommunities who generate thought-provokingworkto enhance ourbusiness and workplace, creating a sense of belonging and opportunities for all.

Join us, and you'll be part of an organisation that embraces diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you'll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You'll be part of - and help build - an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more. And you'll help us champion inclusion and diversity across our entire business: with our employees, our suppliers, across our brands, and within the communities in which we operate.