IFC is seeking to hire a Principal Investment Officer to help grow and develop its FIG operations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal (the “Countries”). The position is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Under the supervision of the Regional Industry Manager, the Principal Investment Officer will be responsible for driving business development and supporting portfolio supervision for FIG in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. She/he will also engage on a continuous basis with the Country Managers, the Regional FIG Leadership Team, as well as other relevant Departments/Divisions within IFC (such as Special Operations (CSO), Treasury, Legal, Equity Mobilization, etc.) as well as the World Bank/MIGA. The Principal Investment Officer will report to the Regional Industry Manager, FIG, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Duties and Accountabilities:
Contribute to the development of the strategy for IFC’s FIG business in the Countries, in partnership with the regional and industry management and relevant World Bank Group colleagues, including key business targets for the FIG regional investment program, with a focus on high impact projects.
Build and maintain high level relationships with clients in the Countries, understand sector trends, lead multidisciplinary teams to turn leads into deals that effectively balance IFC’s additionality, financial risks and rewards, sustainable development impact and opportunity for innovation and scalability.
Proactively support business development efforts in the Countries, together with the regional/country teams, and global FIG teams, manage selected FIG client relationships and ensure high level of client satisfaction and program delivery within impact and profitability targets.
Ensure the timeliness and quality of complex portfolio actions (such as restructuring, equity sale, loan conversion) as well as regular waivers and amendments.
In coordination with the FIG equity investment leads, contribute to the active management of the FIG equity portfolio in the Countries focused on value add as well as equity sales that ensure successful exits.
Coordinate as relevant with CSO on rescheduling and restructuring situations.
Ensure timely, accurate and “value added” regular monitoring and reporting on the portfolio; provide early warning for assets at risk.
Monitor compliance with IFC financial, environmental, legal and other requirements.
Proactively engage with the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) and relevant project teams on assessments of IFC’s investment portfolio.
Contribute to knowledge management through relevant lessons learned from the portfolio and maintain feedback loops from portfolio to new business development, including Upstream.
Support the Regional Industry Manager in supervising FIG teams in the Countries and ensure the teams are high-performing, well-motivated and committed to the success of IFC.
Undertake any assignments that the Regional Industry Manager may assign.
Selection Criteria:
Master's degree in a related field and at least 12 years of experience. Related fields of education include business, finance, or economics or an area of expertise specific to a sector, subject matter, or industry specialty. Relevant experience could include a proven track record in business consulting or investment banking, or operational experience in the sector or technical or professional field.
Excellent negotiation and structuring skills demonstrated by proven track record. Can recognize when negotiations no longer serve IFC’s interests and has the conviction to take appropriate actions to protect IFC, which could include walking away from a deal or taking different positions on corporate actions.
Able to influence others based on the understanding of the implications of investment decisions for IFC’s business.
Build, maintain, and leverage strategically extensive network in the sector, country, or region to seek new opportunities and markets. Maintain rapport and reputation within these networks to test new ideas, products, and approaches to generate opportunities in new markets. Practices active listening skills, often paraphrasing the message, to ensure understanding of what is going on with clients and stakeholders to anticipate their needs and acknowledge when IFC or WBG is unable to meet them.
Development Partners: Maintain excellent relationships by presenting latest research, trends, and new programs, and by reporting on progress and results of projects they are sponsoring.
Public Sector: Credibility to engage with or support IFC management engagement with governments at senior levels (e.g., ministers) and apply a political mindset to influence thinking and action on market and regulatory reforms in targeted countries to open doors to private sector investment.
Networks: Ability to develop and draw on relationships across multiple teams — regional, headquarters, advisory, other departments, and WBG — to facilitate transfer of knowledge, innovative approaches, and replication of best practices.
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills. Ability to describe highly complex issues, approaches, and lessons in a manner that is relevant and understandable to clients/stakeholders.
Provide guidance to junior staff on how to achieve intended objectives of written work.
Provide quality control for complex or sensitive written work.
Able to clearly and extemporaneously articulate the essence of a complex or novel deal —- its profitability, additionality, and development impact — in a way that is relatable and compelling to clients and key stakeholders, including by ensuring well-written IRM books, board papers, and complex portfolio documentation.
Ability to provide direction to larger size staff with more diverse composition, to adjust supervision style to meet needs and level of individual staff members, and to motivate the team.
Ability to guide and share experiences with junior staff and peers through formal and informal mentoring arrangements and through the design and delivery of internal formal learning. Critical for FCS and other challenging markets.
Ability to see the big picture of where sectors, industries, regions, and countries are, where they are heading, and where IFC/WBG can play a role in their development.
Ability to review the financial analytical work performed by team members for moderately complex transactions based on in-depth analytical and financial modeling skills and experience to know what to look for in efficiently ensuring quality control and directing the appropriate analysis to understand risk factors in a project.
Ability to direct and review complex financial information and financial analytical work performed by team members and quickly assess what it means as well as identify where there are gaps, inaccuracies, or inappropriate applications.
Broad, in-depth experience and demonstrated success with a diverse range of clients (sophisticated and new market entrants), regions, and projects covering the full range of IFC and WBG products and instruments and involving highly complex factors, such as multiple investors, sophisticated products, difficult countries (e.g., IDA, FCS), high levels of risk, and innovative approaches that have not been tried before.
Able to proactively distinguish business development activities and untapped market opportunities where it is important to exercise perseverance, particularly where risks are high (e.g., FCS countries) versus those that will ultimately fall short of meeting IFC requirements.
Has extensive understanding of how WBG/ IFC approaches to business development differ based on market stability and volatility, regulatory structures, and investment climate.
Able to envision what success would look like with particular clients based on their priorities and appetite for risk and has the ability to help shape their longer-term business development strategies and identify areas of commonality with IFC’s long-term strategic priorities at the sector and region or country level.
Able to leverage internal networks and mobilize IFC resources to deliver solutions to clients in a timely manner as well as leverage external networks to find solutions that IFC/WBG cannot provide.
Thorough and in-depth understanding of IFC’s portfolio performance and how it contributes to IFC’s mission, corporate targets, and AAA financial rating. Has thorough knowledge of portfolio operational policies, practices, and procedures.
Recognized internally and externally as a sector or region expert and a go-to resource for complex portfolio management decisions based on track record within specific geography or sector, with a thorough understanding of strategic directions of key clients.
Ability to assess portfolio for a region and industry sectors to determine asset management priorities and lay out a plan for ensuring adequate attention to assets needing more nurturing and optimal focus on how to maximize value for IFC and its clients.
Ability to gauge opportunities for value creation, identify risk, and decide timing for exit, taking into consideration IFC’s role and perspective for future upside.
Expertise in the identification and financial restructuring of distressed companies, and capacity to oversee and manage the relationship with CSO in the restructuring of multiple projects.
Ability to pull together the right team resources from across the organization and disciplines and demonstrate leadership in achieving cohesive and focused performance to address critical portfolio problems.
Ability to appreciate broad macroeconomic and market risks that impact the relevant sector and can anticipate beyond sector knowledge.
Understands strengths of and gaps in sector global markets, advantages IFC can bring to emerging frontier markets, and IFC’s limitations. Able to proactively discern business development activities and untapped market opportunities.
Able to nurture senior-level relationships internally (WGB, advisory services, credit, and regional and country office staff) and externally (IMF, IFIs, industry groups) by establishing trust through transparency and open information sharing, credibility through expertise, and mutual benefit by understanding what would add value to counterparts in relationships. Able to leverage network to determine next big thing relevant to sector and gain support.
Able to develop a message that clearly conveys IFC’s competitive advantage as a development partner and generates interest in working with IFC. Able to anticipate what could go wrong with branding strategy.
Able to leverage a network to learn from other transactions in process with a client to determine implications on deal structuring and to constructively keep projects moving.
