Exceptional Leadership Opportunity in Africa
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates and promotes public-private partnerships for the access and delivery of appropriate proprietary agricultural technologies for use by resource-poor farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Established seven years ago, and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, AATF has developed a strong and wide network of partners in developed and developing countries aimed at access, development and delivery of appropriate proprietary agricultural technologies for use by resource-poor smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Foundation enjoys financial support from a number of development partners and technology providers that have enabled it launch a suite of project activities in some 15 countries across Africa.
AATF seeks to recruit from nationals of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa a visionary and passionate leader with experience in building and managing successful public-private partnerships for the benefit of smallholder farming in Africa, who has a track record of breakthrough results in both the private sector and the world of government and development organisations, and who is experienced in African agriculture and culturally compatible with Africa from the smallholder level to senior government officials to serve as the Executive Director of the Foundation.
The Executive Director will report to the Board of Trustees and will provide leadership in developing the strategy of the Foundation and generating broad support for implementation of the Foundation’s activities while adjusting strategies in response to challenges and emerging opportunities.
S/he will lead the design and implementation of the vision of a food secure Africa, and inspire both staff and external partners to this singular and vital goal.
As the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer and primary spokesperson, the Executive Director will represent the Foundation in regional and international meetings, and identify and negotiate opportunities for cooperation with partner organisations to most effectively achieve the important goals of technology transfer to smallholder farmers. S/he will also serve as a leading African voice for equitable and sustainable development of African agriculture.
This position requires strategic senior executive leadership skills coupled with capability for hands-on management of the organisation and its donor relationships. The successful candidate will have a large capacity to handle complexity in a developmental environment with high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity.
S/he will lead and direct a team of 22 staff 10 of whom are internationally recruited professionals, and interface with partners and leading business, government, development, and NGO leaders from around the world. S/he shall have great interpersonal skills, being a good negotiator and ability to get along with AATF’s key financiers and be able to relate with policy makers at the highest level of government.
The candidate must have a strong background in agricultural sciences, preferably plant genetics or plant breeding or agricultural economics or a related field. A PhD is highly desirable while the emphasis will be on an individual who is a great fundraiser, great communicator, and great leader for AATF.
S/he will possess solid experience of at least seven years in senior management positions preferably both in profit and not for profit organisations. S/he will understand African agriculture, be thoroughly familiar and well networked with the African agricultural research and development sector, and will know how to negotiate issues within Africa to address the concerns of farmers, governments, and other key stakeholders and promote an equitable and sustainable transformation of African agriculture.
The candidate should have experience working with or within the donor community and the private sector. S/he should be an articulate and compelling communicator with demonstrated capability to inspire positive action towards achievement of key goals. Possession of an MBA will be a distinct advantage.
Specific responsibilities include (but are not limited to):
· Providing a compelling and integrated strategic vision for all Foundation programmes and activities.
· Leading the Foundation’s resource mobilisation efforts to ensure sufficient funding for the execution of the Foundation’s operations.
· Harnessing appropriate support worldwide and strengthening the resultant partnerships towards successful implementation of programmes and realisation of AATF’s goals.
· Ensuring that the Foundation has the right calibre of staff in terms of competencies and attributes, and directing the performance of senior staff of the Foundation to ensure their effective leadership of others.
· Motivating, leading and inspiring Foundation staff to ensure realisation of synergy between the various Foundation programmes and effective management and operations while maintaining a culture that is compatible with AATF values.
· Supporting the AATF Board in its oversight roles by providing regular reports on all aspects of operations.
· Overseeing the establishment and implementation of effective and efficient financial, administrative, human resource, information and monitoring and evaluation systems.
The position is based in Nairobi and will involve worldwide travel. An attractive salary and employment benefits will be offered, commensurate with the position of a chief executive of a major regional research or technology transfer organisation.
If this interests you, and you believe you meet the requirements of leading an organisation at the heart of a large and complex network of projects and partners, we invite you to visit the AATF website (www.aatf-africa.org) for more information including a detailed job description (http://www.aatf-africa.org/userfiles/JD_AATF-ED.pdf) and email your resume before 28 February 2011 to the firm we have retained to handle this recruitment (Kincannon & Reed, Global Executive Search, email: gdooman@krsearch.net)You can also visit www.kenyanvacancies.com for more jobs
