Full-Time Senior Investment Professional
Job Description
Yunus Social Business is offering a full time position, to start in January 2016 at earliest convenience, based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
YSB Haiti incubates and finances social businesses in all provinces of Haiti. We provide coaching and consulting to social business entrepreneurs, help to create and develop employment-generating social businesses through the Yunus Social Business Haiti S.A., and finance these businesses in order to help them scale their operations. The initiativeYSB Haiti was founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and SAP and is managed by Yunus Social Business (YSB) part of the Grameen family of social businesses. The many Grameen success stories in Bangladesh and elsewhere demonstrate that social businesses can be powerful tools to unlock economic potential, create employment and self-employment, help solve social problems and reduce poverty in a sustainable way. Haiti has been selected by Prof. Yunus as one of the priority countries for social business promotion.
We, YSB, are the international consulting and project implementation company for Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, and our mission is to help create social businesses worldwide. Reporting directly to Prof. Yunus, we are currently a team of over 40 people worldwide, thereof 6 in Haiti, with backgrounds in strategy consulting, entrepreneurship, finance, and international development. Our central office is in Frankfurt, Germany, with our local office for Haiti based in Port-au-Prince. We are part of the Grameen network of over 40 social businesses and more than 50,000 employees. Grameen/Yunus projects, in microfinance and in social business, have been implemented in more than 50 countries around the world.
A social business is a new kind of organization that combines the strengths of both civil society and the business world. Social businesses have a social or environmental mission – like NGOs – but are financially self-sustainable – like businesses. Social business is a combination of social action with entrepreneurship and market discipline. YSB Haiti will focus on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable members of Haitian society. It generated a first wave of social business entrepreneurs and social business projects, and provides scale-up financing to the most promising ones.
The position is based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Main responsibilities of the Senior Investment Professional
The Senior Investment Professional will be based in Haiti to closely work with the local team. Reporting to and in co-ordination with the Country Director (based in Haiti), the Senior Investment Professional will be responsible for all aspects towards initial investments with a Social Business:
• Developing the Social Business pipeline including sourcing of new Social Business opportunities, initial screening of business plans, preparation of Review and Investment Committee meetings, preparation of monthly local and quarterly international portfolio reviews, resolving legal issues, preparing contracts, to finalize financing deals (equity and debt)
• Structuring, guiding and interacting with other Haiti-based investment professionals, especially on the social business investment search & selection process and in monitoring & evaluation of social businesses in the investment portfolio, including coaching of more junior colleagues in their day to day responsibilities
• Working closely with Social Business Entrepreneurs in the portfolio in order to understand their needs and provide them with on-going support to develop and grow their social businesses
• Supporting fund raising activities on a local level, such as drafting of investor proposals, supporting Country Director in negotiation of investment proposals, as well as supporting on investor and donor reporting
• Project Management for the overall initiative, including status updates, timelines, deliverables, milestone tracking etc.
• Reporting to Country Director on all topics described above
• Participation in global work streams on a variety of topics to contribute to the development of YSB globally – working with team members in the Head Office (Germany) and other country teams to support on a diverse range of topics including: development of new tools, processes and products for investment and portfolio management, fundraising, communications, impact assessment, research, etc
• Close collaboration with the Program Director for Haiti as well as Director of Funds & Investments (Germany)
• Other duties and responsibilities, as required, to help ensure that the YSB Initiative Haiti is a success.
Selection criteria
Candidates should have the following qualities, skills and experience:
• A demonstrated commitment to serving society’s needs and a high level of personal integrity;
• Fluent in English and in French, Haitian Creole a plus
• Significant work experience (minimum 6 to 8 years), with extensive exposure to at least one, or preferably several of the following:
o Business plan evaluation
o Legal and contractual procedures for investment, e.g. investment structure, terms & conditions, knowledge of local legal context a definite plus
o Venture Capital / Private Equity / Investment Banking experience
o Social / Impact Investment experience a definite plus
• Strong analytical and communication skills
• Demonstrated leadership, management and organizational skills; experience of managing teams in challenging environments combined with strong people skills;
• A high level of passion, entrepreneurial energy, personal initiative and responsibility;
• An excellent understanding of “social business” and how this is related to other concepts, e.g. social innovation, social entrepreneurship, inclusive business, impact investing…;
• Numeracy, critical thinking, evidence-based analysis, efficiency and thoroughness, demonstrated by excellent academic qualifications;
• Strong financial modelling skills (Advanced Excel)
• Strong cultural understanding and skills to manage differences;
• Diplomacy, negotiating skills and team-working skills;
• Willingness to travel outside of Port-au-Prince, to rural areas of Haiti
This is a full time position, with competitive compensation. Business related travel costs will be covered. Job description might change over course of time in accordance with changing project needs.