About This Role
This senior project leadership role involves leading the end-to-end planning and delivery of a major, high-profile international government summit in Abu Dhabi. The Project Director will assume overall project leadership and accountability, leading multiple work streams and collaborating closely with government stakeholders, international organizations, senior officials, Ministers, VIP/VVIP delegations, and specialist delivery partners.
Responsibilities
- Lead the overall project governance, planning, and end-to-end delivery of the summit
- Act as the senior interface with clients, government entities, and key institutional stakeholders
- Lead and integrate multiple work streams, including Programme, Creative, Marketing & Communications, Operations, Production, Protocol, and Hospitality
- Manage the Master Project Programme, critical milestones, dependencies, approvals, and delivery priorities
- Lead a large multidisciplinary project team and senior workstream directors
- Maintain oversight of project budgets, commercial performance, procurement, and change control
- Manage complex government, ministerial, and international stakeholder requirements
- Oversee VIP/VVIP protocol, international delegations, and high-level summit operations
- Lead project risk, contingency, and crisis-management planning
- Oversee venue readiness, operational planning, and Event Control / Command and Control
- Ensure effective coordination across internal teams, government stakeholders, venues, suppliers, and specialist delivery partners
- Maintain rigorous project reporting, governance, and escalation processes
- Provide senior leadership, direction, and decision-making throughout planning and live delivery
Requirements
- Minimum 20 years' experience in major international events, summits, or complex programme delivery
- Significant experience operating at Project Director, Programme Director, or Event Director level
- Demonstrable experience personally leading the delivery of COP, UN, G20, World Government Summit, ministerial forums, or comparable large-scale international government events
- Proven experience working directly with government ministries, senior public-sector stakeholders, and international organizations
- Demonstrable experience managing Ministers, Heads of Delegation, VIPs, and VVIPs
- Strong expertise in project governance, programme management, risk management, and contingency planning
- Proven leadership of large, multidisciplinary, and multi-workstream teams
- Strong commercial management experience, including oversight of significant project budgets, procurement, and change control
- Extensive live-event delivery and operational command experience
