Business Manager, General Counsel Office

Team and role overview

• The Business Manager role supports the Managing Director and General Counsel (MD & GC) who is an Executive Committee (ExCo) and Investment Committee (IC) member at BII. This is a varied role and an opportunity for individuals to gain a wider understanding of BII; in particular, how it interacts with UK Government and other development institutions, how it sets policy internally and externally, how it identifies and addresses certain non-investment risks.
  
  

Purpose

• The MD & GC performs three functions at BII:
• Overseeing the Communications, Global Affairs, Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary functions,
• Being a principal focus for relations with the UK government, international institutions, think tanks, and civil society and
• Providing leadership for a variety of cross institution issues (i.e. transparency) or new initiatives (i.e. ARIA or the EBRD-G7 DFI-EDFI Ukraine Investment Platform).

Many of these issues are highly confidential. This position is intended to support and partner with the MD & GC across all these functions.

• The Business Manager will work with the MD & GC to ensure that matters requiring the MD & GC’s involvement are identified and followed through on. In some cases, this will require coordinating with other parts of BII; in some cases, it will require leading on such coordination. The position will provide in depth exposure to BII policy development and global affairs as well as the broader work of MD & GC’s teams.
• The Business Manager will support the MD & GC in management of the teams under the Md & GC’s oversight.

Responsibilities

• The Business Manager will have two principal responsibilities:
  (i) to identify issues that require action by the MD & GC and
  (ii) ensuring that such actions are followed up on. To accomplish these ends, the Business Manager will monitor email traffic, triage needs, work with the MD & GC to designate responsibility for follow up and monitor and manage resolution of the issues.
• The Business Manager will take a lead on preparing the MD & GC for meetings, providing briefs and making recommendations.
• Developing content for articles and speeches given by the MD & GC and others in BII.
• The Business Manager will also support the MD & GC and the MD & GC’s Team Heads in
  i) headcount management, budget, and business planning and
  ii) ensuring new processes and policies are communicated and implemented.
• The Business Manager will need to develop close links with the Team Heads reporting to the Managing Director & General Counsel and act as a conduit/proxy where appropriate both internally and externally.
• The Business Manager may take responsibility for discrete projects. These will vary based on BII’s current priorities. Projects may address issues of corporate policy, engagement with HMG on items (such as G7 priorities), particular events that BII participates in (such as World Bank meetings or the Oxford Fragility Forum) or issues of policy (such as the application of the ODA rules to investment in State Owned Enterprises).
• The Business Manager will need to interact with the CEO, Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, European Development Finance Institutions and other international organisations, members of Investment Committee and Executive Committee and Team Heads. In many cases, the Business Manager will be the first point of contact on issues.

The candidate
Background, skills, aptitude

• Excellent project management, stakeholder engagement, and team coordination skills.
• Previous similar experience as a Business Manager or equivalent within an investment company/ corporate finance function.
• Alternatively, experience working within investments, business strategy or an investment support function in the financial services sector.
• A rigorous and analytical thinker.
• A self-starter with the ability to generate their own creative solutions to problems.
• Reflect BII’s values and expected behaviours. A highly collaborative working style is particularly important, as are discretion and the ability to maintain high degrees of confidentiality.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills with the ability to prepare clear and concise papers/presentations for internal and external stakeholders. Excellent oral communication to effectively converse with internal (team members, senior management) and external (clients, financing partners, Government, Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, FCDO) stakeholders. Ability to build trust and confidence of the Managing Director.
• Accountable - rigorous, disciplined, and professional in their work - showing a “can-do” attitude that strives for excellence.
• Diplomatic and patient in their approach, with the ability to build trusted relationships.
• Influencing - takes a thoughtful and analytical approach to understanding issues and policies that impact on BII.
• Delivers results - highly organised and can manage/adapt to competing priorities.
• The candidate will be hired at Executive or Manager level in accordance with experience and competencies.
• Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous executive or non-executive activity.

Our cultural values

We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:

• Impact-led, commercially rigorous
• Tenacious in the face of challenges
• Collaborative and caring

British International Investment is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background. 

Please provide a cover letter with your application

Salary: Competitive