• Organization: Acumen Fund
  • Posted: January 27 2010
  • Location: New York, US

Summer Associate - Portfolios (3 positions)

Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture fund. We invest patient capital to social entrepreneurs building transformative businesses that serve the poor. The companies we invest in focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services - like health, water, housing and energy - through innovative, market-oriented approaches in South Asia and Africa.  For more information, please visit www.acumenfund.org

Position Description

Acumen Fund will hire several Summer Associates to help research in portfolios and metrics, perform due diligence and support high-potential investments. These associates will be able to use their business skills in researching and analyzing organizations and will get practical insights into a new approach in social investing. The business analysis will focus primarily in four portfolio areas:

  • Health - invests in technology that presents an opportunity to profoundly alter market dynamics in the healthcare landscape of the developing world.
  • Housing - invests in self-sustaining, scalable enterprises that focus on both supply of housing and credit for housing, and on broader financial innovations that provide economic access to the poor.
  • Water - invests capital and management support in financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that make safe and sufficient water accessible to the poor.
  • Energy - invests capital and management support in financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that make renewable energy options accessible to the poor.

Acumen Fund also provides hands-on management support to enterprises in its portfolios, and summer associates are also asked to assist with specific projects addressing management challenges of portfolio companies. Some deliverables in the past have included financial models, competitor analyses, marketing strategies, and an exploration of export opportunities.

Job Significance: The summer associate will be critical to further developing the portfolio of investments that Acumen Fund will consider funding, and to supporting our existing investments.

Supervisor

Brian Trelstad, Chief Investment Officer

Before joining Acumen Fund, Brian Trelstad spent four years at McKinsey & Company as a consultant in the healthcare and non-profit practices and as an editor of the McKinsey Quarterly. Prior to McKinsey, he worked as a case writer at Stanford University's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and advised a number of early-stage technology companies. He was the lead environmental staffer for President Clinton's AmeriCorps program, and co-founded and directed the Center for Environmental Citizenship. Mr. Trelstad holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MA in City Planning from UC-Berkeley, and a BA from Harvard University.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

  • Candidate for MBA or similar graduate-level degree
  • Experience in financial analysis and modeling
  • Ability to take initiative with research and analysis
  • Commitment to Acumen Fund's mission
  • Non-profit experience, international NGO experience preferred
  • Academic training or work experience focused on health, water, housing, or energy
  • Capacity to work with NGO managers in different countries/cultures
  • Capability to present investment ideas in memoranda to senior management and advisors

Compensation

$600/week. (Students: Find out if you are eligible for a supplemental grant from your school's internship fund.)

Location

76 Ninth Avenue, Suite 315, New York, NY 10011

To Apply

Deadline to apply is February 3, 2010.

E-mail a cover letter and a resume to the supervisor named in this listing c/o The MBA-Nonprofit Connection at summer2010@mnconnection.org. Please send the cover letter and resume as separate attachments, labeled as follows: AF-Portfolio-[your last name]-Cover.doc and AF-Portfolio-[your last name]-Resume.doc. In your cover letter, highlight aspects of your experience that are relevant for this job, including volunteer service, and explain why you are interested in working with this organization. (For advice on preparing applications for nonprofit jobs, see "Advice for Job Seekers" at www.mnconnection.org.) The MNC will forward your application to the employer as soon as it is received.

If your school is not a member of MNC, please send a cover letter and resume to Nadege Joseph, Administration Manager, at summerintern2010@acumenfund.org. Please include the job title "Summer Associate - Portfolio" in the subject line.