Regional Manager, Meetings

Santen is a specialized life sciences company with a proud 130-year heritage focused exclusively on ophthalmology. As a Japan-originated, global company with our footprint in over 60 countries, we are dedicated to delivering innovative treatments and digital solutions for eye health and addressing vision-related social issues for people around the world.  

Primary Location: St Albans, United Kingdom. Candidates based in other locations across the EMEA region will also be considered.

Are you a strategic, experienced events professional with a passion for delivering high-impact meetings and events across diverse markets? We are looking for a Regional Manager, Meetings & Events EMEA to join our team and lead the planning, execution, and optimization of our events strategy across the region.

In this role, you will be responsible for leading, organizing and managing the meetings and events strategy across EMEA, managing relationships with regional agency partners, and supporting country affiliates with standards of excellence. You will oversee the implementation and delivery of the events portfolio, working closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure that the EMEA Meetings & Events calendar aligns with business needs.

What you will do:

• Lead the development, cascade and execution of the EMEA Meetings & Events strategic meetings management plan
• Build and maintain relationships with functional and country leaders and their event management teams to ensure alignment of meetings/events objectives and understanding of brand/organizational priorities
• Set the standard for performance and quality for all EMEA internal and external meetings and events
• Manage third party vendor roster, identifying and negotiating SLA/MSAs with new vendors and overseeing partnerships with existing vendors
• Lead the EMEA Meetings & Events Team including direct report (s)
• Regional events: Lead the planning and implementation of flagship events in the EMEA region - both internal events and external customer events
• Local events: Create/ maintain SOP for local events ensuring input from relevant stakeholders and including guidance on agency standards and processes
• Global events: Coordinate and contribute meetings/events excellence from the EMEA region to global strategy and planning
• Collaborate across the business with partners including but not limited to Finance & Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Digital & Multichannel, Commercial Operations, Corporate Communications
• Drive adoption of the organizations ESG strategy in the Meetings & Events function; influencing change amongst stakeholders

What you will bring to the role:

• Suitable academic degree or at least college-level education required
• Minimum 8 years' experience leading meetings and events for intercontinental events and symposia, ideally in life sciences (open to other industries)
• Experience in complex project management
• Strong background in vendor contract negotiation and performance management
• Experience managing large event budgets (in excess of €1 million)
• Expertise in event planning principles and keeping up with industry trends
• Skilled in developing complex event briefs and delivering against KPIs and SLAs
• Strong communication skills at senior levels, with leadership experience
• Strategic thinker with excellent stakeholder management and negotiation skills
• Advanced IT skills (e.g., MS Office)
• Fluent in English
• Ability to travel up to 30% of the time

Grow your career at Santen  

A career at Santen is an opportunity to make a difference. Through our long-term vision outlined in Santen 2030, we are committed to be a Social Innovator - addressing the social and economic needs of people with visual impairments. We have team members around the world using their diverse talents to unlock new modalities and drive innovations for patient outcomes, education and treatment. At Santen, we believe in empowering all our team members with flexible ways of working and a highly inclusive work environment. 

The Santen Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building diverse teams and ensuring a safe and inclusive physical and virtual workplace for every one of our team members. All employment decisions are based on business needs, role requirements and individual qualifications regardless of race, color, ethnicity, national origin/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/ expression, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.  

If you require any kind of accommodation during our recruitment process, please let the recruiter from our team know.