Project Associate (Board & Management Development), Portfolio Management
About BII
British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution, owned by the UK Government. With a mission to solve the biggest global development challenges, we aim to create a virtuous circle of investment and impact. Your contribution will be essential.
It won’t be easy: we do the hardest work in the most complex markets. Be prepared to test your skills, get creative and say your piece as you take on high-profile work as part of a diverse team of exceptionally smart, passionate people.
In return, you can take your career to all-new places in a culture that rewards curiosity and collaboration, and balances high performance with wellbeing.
BII at a glance
Over 75 years supporting sustainable business growth in developing and emerging markets
More than £8.8 billion in net assests
1,400+ businesses invested in
950,000 workers in the businesses we support
650+ people in our diverse global team
3 key development objectives: Productive | Sustainable | Inclusive
About BII
British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution, owned by the UK Government. With a mission to solve the biggest global development challenges, we aim to create a virtuous circle of investment and impact. Your contribution will be essential.
It won’t be easy: we do the hardest work in the most complex markets. Be prepared to test your skills, get creative and say your piece as you take on high-profile work as part of a diverse team of exceptionally smart, passionate people.
In return, you can take your career to all-new places in a culture that rewards curiosity and collaboration, and balances high performance with wellbeing.
BII at a glance
Over 75 years supporting sustainable business growth in developing and emerging markets
More than £8.8 billion in net assests
1,400+ businesses invested in
950,000 workers in the businesses we support
650+ people in our diverse global team
3 key development objectives: Productive | Sustainable | Inclusive
Team and role overview
The Portfolio Management team is a dedicated function within the Office of the Chief Investment Officer (OCIO), which supports deal teams by providing functional expertise to support value creation activities, predominantly (but not exclusively) within BII’s direct equity portfolio.
The Project Associate will work closely with the Executive and Director of Portfolio Management, within the OCIO Team, to support portfolio management activities across the sector investment teams; Financial Services Group, Infrastructure and Climate Group and ITS (Industries, Technology and Services), ensuring these are proactively and appropriately managed in accordance with BII’s policies, objectives and values.
Purpose
In conjunction with the Portfolio Management team, the Project Associate’s role is to continue the build of a new Expert Network for BII and support the team on a range of other internal and portfolio projects. The Expert Network will be comprised of individuals who might act as experts or advisors on deals or as Board or Investment Committee members of the businesses we invest in. The experts will have deep, relevant sector and/or geographical experience in our markets and a strong desire to contribute to BII’s development agenda. They will contribute to the rigour of BII’s investment making process and will help guide the strategic direction of our investee companies and funds.
This is a new platform for BII. As such, it will involve continuing the build and setup of systems and processes, generating leads for roles and candidates, delivering high-quality investment team support, and building an internal brand.
This role will also focus on supporting the board and management development team in planning and implementing appropriate post-investment portfolio projectsas well as supporting investment teams to use our in-house management assessment scorecard during due diligence.
Responsibilities
Expert Network and Nominee Director Programme
- Support the ongoing build of the expert network technology (Microsoft Dynamics) required to track and manage the expert network
- Maintain and systematically update data within the expert network platform, ensuring information is current and relevant
- Support the Portfolio Management team in educating deal teams on using and maintaining experts within the expert network platform
- Maintain and track current and future Nominee Director and senior advisor requirements
- Liaise with the deal teams to understand their Nominee Director and Advisor requirements based upon sector investment strategies
- Take, challenge and refine Nominee Director and Advisor requirement briefs, ensuring stakeholder alignment
- Track the pipeline of new investments involving board seat representation, existing board member turnover and tenure within existing investments
- Design a referral programme with existing NEDs, Advisors and BII stakeholders (e.g. investment team members, board members, co-investors, other DFIs and multilaterals)
- Support the implementation of BII’s Nominee Director Programme, co-ordinating internal teams as appropriate, supporting training needs, developing fit for purpose processes, and collecting and updating data on BII’s nominee directors
- Maintain an understanding of compensation and other engagement terms for Nominee Directors across the portfolio and track for broader benchmarking purposes
Other
- Support the implementation of board and management assessment tools for deal teams to use independently of the Portfolio Management team, building capacity across BII
- Contribute to the ongoing analysis of the team’s impact within BII’s portfolio, and value addition to internal stakeholders
- Track progress of board and management development interventions, against agreed milestones and measures
- Develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with the deal teams and DI/CG, ESG, BI, Legal and Finance.
- Develop and maintain a broad understanding of the ecosystem in Africa and South Asia with a view to building relationships with peers, identifying trends, opportunities and issues.
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise on conditions in the emerging markets and specifically the economic, political and social conditions in markets where BII operates, or potentially wishes to operate.
The candidate
Background, skills, aptitude
- Experience of the private equity deal process, including value creation activities
- Experience supporting the design and implementation of a new function or service offering, including setting up tech systems, operations and processes
- Ability to work in a team to build consensus both internally and externally, with the ability to deal with sometimes challenging dynamics
- Comfort working across multi-product capital structures and experience working in development impact.
- Team building skills, exhibited in a multicultural and highly diverse workplace.
- Exceptional communication and relationship management skills
- Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission
- Appreciation of the nuances of developing networks in BII’sgeographies
- Complex stakeholder management skills
- Organised, proactive and responsive
- Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous work experience
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
