Principal - East Africa at CrossBoundary

Who You Are

• Self-starter who is passionate about creating lasting change in underserved markets
• Possesses tangible grit, seeks differentiation by intentionally taking self-outside of comfort zone physically, culturally, and intellectually
• Strong leader, coach, and mentor
• High tolerance for ambiguity; ability to operate effectively through friction and opacity
• Enthusiastic about working, traveling, and living in a challenging environment
• Able to close a deal, great at building relationships and the business
• Demonstrated management skills; leading teams to results in challenging circumstances
• Leadership skills; preferably in a fast-moving and entrepreneurial environment
• Outstanding analytical ability and discipline; ability to think clearly, structure problems logically, and then design and implement solutions that focus on the core issues
• Excellent quantitative skills; ability to apply analytical rigor to complex and uncertain tasks
• Knowledge of corporate finance and familiarity with M&A processes, company evaluation, and valuation techniques
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients and colleagues in stressful environments
• Superb presentation skills; ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences
• Understands the concepts of institutional and structural racism and bias -- and their impact on underserved and underrepresented communities.
• Experience working with a range of stakeholders (including private equity firms, Development Finance Institutions, and development agencies) to support investments in high impact sectors
• Humble

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead a team of investment professionals, maintaining responsibility for hiring, capacity building, performance management, and general team leadership duties
• Lead business development across multiple channels, including private commercial opportunities and government- / donor-sponsored opportunities
• Provide continuous client coverage of private capital investors, development finance institutions (DFIs), corporates ranging from SMEs to MNCs, and other relevant organizations to proactively identify advisory opportunities
• Manage relationships with key CrossBoundary clients, such as USAID; provide strategic into program design and oversee mandate execution and reporting
• Provide deal and project leadership and execution oversight to a wide range of transaction-related advisory engagements:
• Investment target identification and screening
• Use conventional and unconventional channels to identify and rigorously assess investment opportunities
• For targets that are not yet investment-ready, be able to concisely map out paths to investability and resources required to achieve investability
• Be able to credibly articulate investment opportunities’ social and environmental impact narratives
• Investor identification and relationship building
• Understand investor mandates, criteria, preferences, and existing portfolios
• Understand investor appetite to work with DFIs or other development-oriented actors
• Manage investor relationships
• Detailed commercial due diligence/vendor due diligence
• Directly conduct or facilitate investor (‘buy-side) commercial due diligence
• Compile and curate a comprehensive virtual data room
• Robust, multi-faceted corporate and project finance models, including valuations, of private companies using rigorous, defensible methodologies
• Draft investment memoranda and teasers, author and update sophisticated financial models
• Recommendations on optimal transaction structures based upon near-, medium- and long-term company strategic objectives and capitalization parameters, available instruments, and investor preferences
• Draft detailed illustrative term sheets for debt and equity deals
• Market assessment and ongoing market analysis
• Conduct macroeconomic and geopolitical market assessments
• Provide sector analysis of priority areas for investment

Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Master’s degree required. A Master’s degree in Business Administration or Finance or other relevant advanced degree preferred (extensive relevant experience may be accepted as equivalent)
• 15+ years of experience in investment banking, management consulting, private equity, or similar
• Experience living and/or working in emerging markets required; experience in the region applied for highly preferred
• Track record of successfully developing new business opportunities and strategic partnerships
• Experience living and/or working in developing countries
• Demonstrated management skills; leading teams to results in challenging circumstances
• Leadership skills; preferably in a fast-moving and entrepreneurial environments
• Strong financial services-focused quantitative skills and accounting fluency, to include corporate finance, company valuation, comprehension of debt and equity capital markets
• Excellent analytical ability and discipline; ability to think clearly, structure problems logically, and then design and implement solutions that focus on the core issues
• Ability to build strong relationships with partners and colleagues in challenging environments
• Excellent presentation skills; ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences
• Experience working with a range of stakeholders (including private equity firms, Development Finance Institutions, and development agencies) to support investments in high impact sectors