IFC has embarked on an ambitious new growth strategy (IFC 3.0) to stimulate more investment activity, especially in Low Income Countries (LICs) and Fragile and Conflict affected Situations (FCS). This strategy calls for generating our own opportunities by proactively working “Upstream” or at the pre-investment stage to create, deepen, and expand markets and to imagine, design and implement investment projects with clients. It requires taking a systematic approach to understanding the regulatory and sector bottlenecks that prevent the flow of private capital into productive investment into our member countries and addressing these bottlenecks through World Bank Group engagement on policy reforms and programmatic interventions at the country and sector level. It also requires the capacity to leverage WBG’s programs and projects to develop our own proactive sector interventions and to imagine, design and co-develop projects with clients, even in the absence of reforms.
MAS’ Europe department is seeking to recruit a Senior Investment Officer. The position will call for supporting business development and executing investment transactions in all MAS sectors as well as providing oversight to a selected part of the MAS portfolio in the region.
The candidate will have a proven track record as a project leader of multidisciplinary teams and professionals who have expertise in the regions and/or MAS sectors (i.e. industry specialists, investment officers and analysts, lawyers, insurance, corporate governance and environmental and social specialists). Experience with various sponsors/investors/clients, as well as varying investment products (senior secured loans, mezzanine, straight equity etc.) will be important.
Duties and Accountabilities:
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:
Play senior, leadership role for MAS Europe team in the region with foreseen emphasis on certain sub-regional responsibilities for business development in all MAS sectors;
Establish important sponsor and other stakeholder relationships in the assigned geography for MAS Europe;
Develop a strong pipeline of good quality investment opportunities in MAS sectors in the assigned countries by anticipating market trends and employing sector/country knowledge;
Provide oversight on / supervise a commensurate number of MAS portfolio investments in the Europe region;
Work closely with the relevant country managers and officers - joint work to include developing client and sector strategies;
Evaluate, structure, negotiate, and close new transactions, portfolio restructurings, rescheduling, capital increases, equity sales, etc.;
Develop innovative and appropriate financial structures for complex transactions ;
Execute IFC s project development investments with a strong focus on achieving bankable projects;
Lead negotiation/documentation teams; use strong negotiation skills to develop solutions and overcome impasses in straightforward and complex transactions;
Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, global and regional pr ivate businesses, banking and multilateral partners and government officials to further develop the sector and to develop specific investment opportunities;
Lead and manage project teams, mentor and develop junior staff and analysts in the Kiev office and elsewhere in the region;
Collaborate in developing sector and/or regional strategies and support related promotion work, including targeting potential investments and policy advisory work;
Coordinate closely with social, environmental, and technical assistance colleagues to add value to our clients' businesses, find pragmatic solutions to the specific sector challenges, and achieve sustainable development impact;
Candidates will demonstrate the ability to play a leadership role in areas such as formulating business strategy, developing new financial products, providing guidance to multiple teams on transaction enhancement and setting standards for quality control.
Selection Criteria
MBA or equivalent qualification;
At least 8-12 years of experience in finance and investments with a proven track-record of sourcing, structuring and closing investments in MAS or infrastructure sectors;
Strong business development and client relationship skills, track record and ability to focus on clients’ needs effectively;
Sound business judgment in identifying potential business partners;
Strong financial and credit skills; demonstrated ability to structure a variety of complex financial instruments (debt and equity);
Ability to interact directly and independently with the senior management of potential clients, of financial and technical partners as well as senior government officials;
Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English;
Strong inter-personal skills, ability to interact effectively with clients and colleagues from various cultural backgrounds;
Ability to mentor junior investment staff;
Highly motivated, committed to highest ethical standards; and
Genuine commitment to sustainable development.
Preference will be given to candidates who also have:
Knowledge of overall MAS industry sector trends, experience in MAS and emerging markets;
