The World Resources Institute (WRI) is seeking a Director to lead its Markets & Enterprise Program. WRI's work in this area has focused on the role of the private sector in tackling some of the world's most pressing environmental and social problems. The Institute has been a pioneer in this field, building a portfolio of ground-breaking initiatives that aim to influence capital markets, investment flows, and enterprise development to achieve greater sustainability. The program is well positioned to grow and increase its level of impact.
The program's work is currently clustered around the following areas of work:
- New Ventures: New Ventures supports small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that drive sustainable development through "green" products and services in six of the world's most dynamic emerging economies: Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Since its inception in 1999, New Ventures has provided business development and investor engagement services for over 200 SMEs, leading to nearly $200 million of investment into these companies. Looking forward, New Ventures will focus on ensuring that its six local centers are financially and institutionally self-sustaining and that its research and analysis leverages significant investment flows into three sectors: clean energy, clean water and sustainable agriculture.
- Envest: Envest provides forward-looking, applied financial research that translates complex environmental trends into financial terms useful to investors ("environmental intelligence for tomorrow's markets"). In this way, Envest helps investors identify, quantify, and communicate the financial value of environmentally superior business strategies. Ultimately, Envest will strive for a transformative shift in private-sector investment decisions by demonstrating the financial relevance of climate, energy, water and forest issues.
The Program Director will lead a multidisciplinary team of 15+ staff and 1) provide overall strategic direction to the program; 2) lead fundraising and management of a budget of over three million USD; and 3) act as external spokesperson for WRI's business work, presenting MEP work at external events, positioning him/herself as an expert in this field. The position requires a strong strategic mindset and in-depth knowledge of environment, development and private sector issues. On the latter, the successful candidate will know how to best relate to MEPs target audience which includes investors, entrepreneurs, multinational companies, and NGOs in developing countries. In addition, the candidate should be comfortable operating in a results-focused culture. The position is located at WRI's headquarters in Washington DC and reports to the Executive Vice President/Managing Director. The successful candidate will be expected to travel internationally. This is a challenging position that offers a unique opportunity to have a major impact on environmental sustainability issues.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership:
- Develop and maintain a compelling vision for the Markets and Enterprise goal that contributes to WRI's mission and leverages WRI's unique value proposition
- Provide strategic direction to New Ventures and Envest to ensure they have a high-impact strategy that achieves concrete and significant results on-the-ground.
- Identify potential new lines of work that would lead to transformative change in support of the Markets and Enterprise goal.
- Act as the external voice for the program. Lead outreach and communication efforts and promote staff research findings through briefings to corporate leaders, practitioners and policy-makers.
Management:
- Provide day-to-day management of MEP staff: help staff focus on achieving results, motivate and develop personnel, and identify and manage conflicts and problems as they arise.
- Keep program and projects focused on critical issues and opportunities where new insights, analyses, proposals or efforts could lead to significant impact.
- Delegate authority to team leaders and ensure that they are effective and supported in their leadership role, but follow-up to ensure that planned objectives are achieved.
- Oversee the quarterly program budgeting process. Ensure that program and project budgets are managed within budget and according to donor procedures.
- Review draft publications to ensure they meet the highest standards of quality.
- Contribute to overall management at WRI through participation in the Management Team and WRI's strategic planning and peer review processes.
Fundraising:
- Lead efforts to develop and secure long-term funding for program and new projects based on identified needs in coordination with team leaders and WRI's Development Department. This will entail leveraging existing relationships with businesses and government donors, as well as cultivating and maintaining new relationships. Director assumes principal responsibility for program's financial health.
- Mentor staff to broaden their fundraising skills, help them manage existing fundraising relationships and cultivate new funding prospects.
- Represent the Program's interests and needs in decisions about institutional funding.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have:
- Demonstrated commitment to environment and development issues.
- Proven track record of real world outcomes and influence. Substantial experience working with the private sector on environment issues, particularly in the context of developing countries
- Proven management skills. Desire to work in a collegial fashion as part of a team with little hierarchy, along with ability to motivate staff and teams. Willingness to be accessible to staff and fair and transparent in decision making.
- Established network of professional contacts with private sector, multilateral institutions, governments, and/or individual donors. Proven ability to secure funding from the above groups on a large scale (over $2M per year), as well as extensive experience with project development and proposal writing.
- Superb analytical and strategic thinking skills as well as the ability to communicate clearly and compellingly to diverse audiences both verbally and in writing.
- Willingness to travel internationally for about 20% of time.
- Advanced degree with a minimum of 10 years management and team-building work experience. MBA, Finance, Economics or other similar degree preferred.
Salary Range: $135K - $145K (depending on background and experience) and excellent benefits package.
If you are interested in this position please send a cover letter and your CV to:
Vivian Fong, Director of Human Resources
World Resources Institute, 10 G. St. NE, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20002
E-mail: VFong@wri.org Fax: 202-729-7890
World Resources Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is WRI's policy to recruit, hire, and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, sexual preference, parental status, or disability.
