Director, Government Affairs - Canada

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Working at Abbott

The Opportunity

Bring strengths in advocacy, business knowledge, judgement, and process management to successfully lead Government Affairs efforts for Abbott Canada. Advance Abbott's interests before legislative bodies, government agencies/ministries, policymakers, diplomats, and politicians. Engage with and educate allies and influencers, including trade associations, patient groups, practitioner groups, consumer groups, suppliers, political media, NGOs, and employees. Build the reputation of Abbott Canada Government Affairs as the preferred, go-to trusted partner for policymakers, allies, and our businesses.

What You’ll Work On

• Establish and maintain relationships with key members of legislatures, ministries, civil service, and executive offices. This involves identifying key targets, prioritizing resources, networking with their office staffs, and developing outreach and grassroots programs.
• Stay apprised of business goals and strategies to assess the impact of federal or provincial legislative, executive, and regulatory activities. Consult with appropriate business and corporate personnel in making such determinations, providing recommendations, and developing action plans.
• Identify health care, economic, and other policy developments that could impact Abbott's business and operation. Proactively identify opportunities to pursue favorable policies and effectively defend Abbott against policies that could harm patient and shareholder interests. Develop plans to influence legislation and agency actions for both macro and business/product specific initiatives.
• Increase the management and business unit understanding of, and participation in, the policy-making and political process. Collaborate with the business units for input on critical issues and involve appropriate executives to advance Abbott's positions with policymakers.
• Deliver strong messaging in support of Abbott positions - combining the right substance with a credible, trusted approach. Work collaboratively with public affairs, legal, and other functions as necessary to ensure message consistency and delivery to key targets.
• Participate in or lead projects to maximize team effectiveness, such as public events, programs, community engagement, and public speaking.

Deliverables:

• Target: Deep understanding of target policymakers, allies and influencers.
• Coverage: The best network (strong, ongoing, trusted relationships) to reach key players directly and via allies and other key influencers.
• Analysis: Clear understanding of Abbott priorities within and across businesses and compelling data and messaging to convey positions.
• Offer: Delivery of Abbott's desired outcomes by successfully communicating and negotiating with those developing policies (policymakers, allies, influencers).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Master's degree in political science, public policy, public health, or MBA is preferable. Legal degree a plus.
• Minimum 10 years required in positions of increasing responsibility and experience. Experience in government, government affairs, public affairs or public policy in best-in-class health care/consumer products industry is strongly desired.
• Proven extensive contact network, involvement and success in influencing the development of government policies/legislation and strong knowledge of the process.
• Exceptional skill influencing and managing relationships to develop, implement, and coordinate strategic direction, action plans, and tactics.
• Effective relationships with legislators, regulators, policymakers, and leaders in the health care and business community.
• Ability to interface well with key policymakers at senior levels, major ally and association policy teams, and Abbott executives.
• Experience with federal and provincial legislative and executive branch processes, rules, and systems.
• Ability to work across government arenas impacting Abbott, including Health Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Finance, provincial reimbursement entities, and provincial sustainability organizations.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to synthesize key government issues, develop strategy, and persuade constituencies.
• Strong analytical skills to dissect complex range of public issues and assess potential impacts to Abbott.
• High degree of strategic thinking, decision-making, and tactical skills to develop broad strategy and policy, options, and recommendations. Ability to coordinate with trade/business/ally organizations to promote Abbott's position with urgency and tight deadlines.

The base pay for this position is

In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.

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