Regional Manager Kenya Latest Job Vacancy

Position: Regional Manager 
 

Location: Nairobi, Kenya
 

Since 2002, our client has been committed to economic and social development through market-based solutions that help build and scale innovative businesses for social change. The organization’s mission is to accelerate the growth of socially relevant businesses by connecting markets, people and capital. 

Over the past 12 years in India, the organization has built and refined an ecosystem-based approach to accelerating entrepreneurship and innovation at the SME-level. They have built services, tools, products, and methodologies to unlock support for SMEs from several private commercial and donor organizations. 

This approach has demonstrated success: over 900 SMEs connected with 300 investors, US$ 200+ million equity investments intermediated, over 70 angel investors committed to invest in impact SMEs, 10 angel investments facilitated and over 50 private sector firms joined hands to build the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.

They seek to build institutional capacity and channel investments in the development sector through Consulting and Research services as well as Investment Banking services as well as through market building initiatives to further the inclusive development agenda and plug critical gaps.

Our client’s strengths include extensive field experience and a unique understanding of the last-mile development environment, as well as large international investors and corporations. As a result, they are well-positioned to act as a bridge between the development and commercial sectors.  

They also have proven capabilities in implementing market-based solutions to help low-income populations and their success is largely made feasible by a wide and diverse network of stakeholders combined with an awareness of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) market conditions. 

Through their work with social entrepreneurs, they have developed unique insights across six high-impact sectors: financial services, agriculture and rural business, clean energy, healthcare, water and sanitation and education and vocational training. 

They use these insights in a variety of engagements covering a spectrum of services that include raising equity and debt capital for early and growth-stage enterprises to specific advisory services that enable their growth such as market research, market entry, strategy and solution design, innovation management, stakeholder engagement and policy advocacy.

In addition, our client incubates and invests in business models that have high potential to create, scale and improve financial and market access for the BOP. 

Our client’s subsidiary is a financial services company that provides venture debt to small and growing social businesses in India to address the severe shortage of appropriate debt finance options for the SME sector. 

With a more than-money approach, its subsidiary also provides dedicated business development assistance to help fuel growth for these companies. Another subsidiary provides incubation and consulting services to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).

Our client in Africa: Our client’s vision is to be the global market leader in providing advisory services to clients who seek to create social and environmental impact at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) in emerging markets.

As part of their plan to realize this vision, they propose to replicate this approach in East Africa over the next several years. 

They will bring together capital, advice and networks to support high impact small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at two levels: 

(i) they will provide direct support to SMEs in the form of acceleration, fund-raising, technical assistance, innovation transfer, and market linkages, and 

(ii) they will discover and engage critical ecosystem players such as African corporations, and international corporations in supporting SMEs.

They have done advisory work in the region since 2008, and since 2013, have developed and run ecosystem building initiatives that have brought together over 600 SMEs, investors, corporations, governments and others to catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship. 

They have also selected, supported and showcased East African SMEs to angel, seed and VC investors. They are in early stages of launching East Africa’s first impact-focused angel network. 

They now have a strong East Africa foundation and a small local team in place which is being further strengthened in the next few months.

As they look to evolve and scale up in Africa, it envisions a roadmap that helps to link inclusive development hubs of the Global South to each other; and also with the Global North to drive a cohesive inclusive development agenda. 

This will include:

• Corridor building programs in Sub Saharan Africa that lead into the Global Convening
• Build a knowledge corridor between India-Africa and create a platform to scale high impact SMEs in the East African region.
• Create a South-South Knowledge corridor that can exchange learning and create a common action platform for building a similar ecosystem for small and growing businesses in Africa.
• Advisory work and thought leading research including landscape analyses, advocacy, and developing tools and other market infrastructure to drive inclusive development.

About the client’s Forum: The forum, our client’s Initiative, aims to influence the global inclusive development discourse through its work with entrepreneurs, impact investors and inclusive businesses in developing markets. 

Keeping entrepreneurs and the social impact that they create at its core, it engages Governments, corporations, influential platforms like the G8 and G20, media and civil society to drive a paradigm shift in inclusive development approaches.

The forum’s global Summit, held in India annually, brings together over a 1,000 of these engaged stakeholders from around the world to discuss, debate and create a roadmap for development. The Forum expanded to Africa in 2013, and held its first Africa Summit in 2014 with over 400 international and African delegates. 

In 2015, it scaled up its Africa Awards and Summit program significantly and is already recognized as a leading convening in the region. Since its inception in 2009, it has connected over 500 enterprises to investors and funders, and built an engaged community of over 25,000.

Role Objective: The Regional Manager for the Forum Africa will be based in Nairobi and will work closely with senior leadership team at the parent company. 

The Regional Manager will be primarily responsible for developing and implementing a Strategic Business Plan for the Forum’s work in Africa with the primary objective to build a sustainable and profitable business model while building qualitatively superior convening at the regional level. A critical component of being able to deliver successfully on this expectation will be to take lead in identifying strategic funding partners and diversify income streams for the Forum in Africa.

The ideal candidate should be a strong business planner, effective communicator and negotiator, who is self-motivated and has a proven track record of strategic planning, business development, marketing and working with multiple stakeholder and partners.

She/he should be capable of creative and non-traditional thinking and should have experience developing new and innovative strategies for business development and fundraising.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop a detailed Strategic Business Plan for expansion, fundraising and partnership development of the Forum in Africa in close collaboration with the parent organisation Africa CEO and the Forum Director and the senior management team.
• Develop a sustainable financial model to support the Strategic Business Plan.
• Manage, along with the Director and the team, the implementation of the Strategic Business Plan including its expansion, fundraising, and partnership aspects.
• Identify, build and manage sponsorships and partnerships with a wide variety of donors, foundations, corporations, investors, academic institutions, government, and other supporting institutions and individuals.
• Actively fundraise and create partnerships with new entities such as corporates, investors, and development agencies, amongst others.
• Innovate and offer new ideas and approaches for developing and building sponsorships and partnerships with the multiple stakeholders set forth above.
• Identify and pursue available funding resources for core activities and future expansion. Take responsibility along with the Director for achieving an annual fundraising target.
• Stay appropriately networked and abreast of trends, news, and events with respect to Inclusive Development, Social Enterprise, Impact Investing, and related topics so that the Forum develops a market leadership position in Africa and globally.

Experience/ Education:

• A relevant degree in business and / or marketing or management subjects, preferably Master’s.
• 8-10 years of experience working in a strategic planning, business development, fundraising or similar field in a corporate, consulting, or investment environment or with an international development agency.
• Direct experience and successful track record developing and implementing complex projects, including setting project plans, managing budgets and meeting schedules with multiple stakeholders involved.
• Good existing network of entities especially private sector/ corporate entities who could be leveraged for financial sponsorships for the Forum.
• Developed, negotiated, and managed financial and non-financial partnerships with a diverse set of donors, sponsors, investors, and other prospective collaborators.
• Strong communication skills and be able to operate professionally and effectively with a wide variety of stakeholders at multiple levels within their respective organizations.
• Excellent networking, relationship management, team building, and teamwork capability and experience.
• Entrepreneurial drive, passion and ability to help shape the organization and deliver future results.
• Ability to travel extensively within Africa and internationally.
• A strong understanding of and interest in international development, Impact Investing and Social Enterprises.
• Good knowledge of working in India; experience and knowledge of working in Africa or similar emerging markets would be a plus

Application Procedure
 

Please send your updated CV in WORD FORMAT to recruiterbpm@gmail.com by 30th June 2015. 

On the subject line please indicate what position you are applying for and within the email please indicate you current salary, expected salary and remuneration package.