The Business and Investment Associate provides sophisticated business, financial and economic expertise to address conservation challenges.
Areas of Responsibility:
This position will focus on the soy and beef sectors in Brazil and, possibly, Argentina and Paraguay. Companies in both sectors have made commitments to supply deforestation free commodities. It will involve the development of innovative financial mechanisms and business cases and to inform work on incentives and capital flows to market actors implementing these commitments. The work may also inform other CFA outputs around implementing commitments along supply chains. The position will play a key role in delivering outputs agreed under CFA, including.
- The development and implementation of innovative finance mechanisms to foster deforestation free soybean and livestock production.
- Unlocking capital flows towards responsible beef and soy production in the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco.
- Establishing partnerships with key financial sector actors.
- The development of pro forma financial statements and financial models in case studies of soybean and livestock production.
- Work will be closely related to another stream of work, involving.
- The development of business models for companies willing to implement sustainable beef or soy production practices.
- The development of business cases for responsible soy and beef production in the Amazon and Cerrado.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND SCOPE
Help implement a long-term program to reduce and eliminate deforestation associated with soy and beef production in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado to 2021 and possibly beyond:
- Help structure, evaluate and implement innovative financial mechanisms;
- Perform financial modelling, scenario and trade-off analysis undertaken by the financial and business case teams;
- Contribute to the engagement of key actors from the financial sector to establish partnerships with CFA;
- Document and monitor work in all the areas above for potential use in national, regional and global forums relevant to responsible soy and beef production as well as potential use with lenders and investors, as required;
- Support TNC input to CFA activities involving the Chaco, as required.
Contribute to maintaining positive institutional relationships internal and external to the Conservancy necessary for delivery of agreed CFA outputs around responsible soy and beef supply, including:
- Maintaining positive working relationships with colleagues from peer “co-architect” CFA organizations WWF and NWF;
- Contributing to cross-institutional work teams focused on specific CFA outputs related to responsible soy and beef production in the Amazon and Cerrado, as specified above;
- Helping to monitor sub-grantee and implementation partner performance on contracts funded by CFA, which may include intervening with sensitivity when appropriate to ensure timely delivery of agreed outputs;
- Coordinating effectively and transparently with all Conservancy programs, including regional and global operating units of the Conservancy also involved in CFA implementation;
- Responding rapidly to demands for information from Conservancy and co-architect staff involved in communications efforts around FAMI;
- Implementing as required an agreed monitoring and evaluation framework for tracking levels of responsible soy production in the Amazon and Cerrado, as well as other M&E information that may be required by the funding organization and/or the CFA project manager from time to time.
Educational Background:
Bachelor's degree
Skills/Experience:
- Experience in a private sector environment, such as management consulting and investment banking, or with a leading conservation organization or government entity, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Experience developing and implementing complex projects and strategic initiatives in an unstructured environment.
- Experience leading and managing large scale projects, including working with both internal and external stakeholders.
- Experience negotiating complex agreements (ideally financial transactions)
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Strong knowledge of finance, including financial forecast of complete income statements, accounting, return, capital optimization and others.
- Ability to gather, process and analyze information.
- Strong presentation skills – ability to make power point presentations and write reports both in English and in Portuguese.
- Ability to present ideas to a wide range of audiences – producers, lenders, investors, partners and others.
- Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organization and with Conservancy partners.
- Familiarity with private and public credit and financial flows;
- Experience in complex financial transactions.
- Ability to travel throughout Brazil (mainly Amazon and Cerrado) to meet with partners and stakeholders, and occasionally international travel.
- Multi-lingual skills and/or multi-cultural experience appreciated.
- Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organization and with Conservancy partners.
- Ability to successfully develop and implement complex projects in an unstructured environment.
- Outstanding analytical and project management capabilities.
- Superior written and oral communications.
- International work experience desirable.
- MBA or similar degree with significant coursework in finance or economics.
- Experience working in the finance area developing or analyzing financial statements and investments
- Field knowledge of soy and beef origination areas in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado and the challenges faced by producers and traders, with a focus in financial issues
- Work Experience with Equity Research in an Investment Bank and or Investor Relations will be considered an advantage
- Experience structuring transactions and presenting those to a wide audience: lenders, investors, donors, producers and others
- Familiarity with environmentally sustainable investment alternatives for agriculture and livestock;
- Familiarity with the agribusiness, beef and soy sectors in Brazil;
- Ability to implement complex agreements across multiple institutions and operating units
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Nov 15 2018
Active Until:
Dec 15 2018
Hiring Organization:
Nature Conservancy
industry:
Nonprofit