Skoll Foundation Principal, Portfolio Team

About the Skoll Foundation:

Created in 1999 by eBay’s founding President, Jeff Skoll, the Skoll Foundation pursues his vision of sustainable world peace and prosperity. The mission of the Foundation is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems. These change agents and their organizations are creating innovative models that can spark large-scale change for seemingly intractable human and environmental problems. The Foundation’s current portfolio of 97 social entrepreneurs and 80 organizations on five continents includes some of the most successful social entrepreneurs in the world.

Position Summary:

The Portfolio Team, currently consisting of a director, five principals, and several support team members, leads the Foundation’s efforts to source, evaluate, and structure opportunities for multi-dimensional grants and high value partnerships by the Foundation.

The Principal position is based in Palo Alto, CA. As a lead architect of multidimensional deals for issue-level impact, the Portfolio Principal plays a critical, strategic role in Skoll’s investment approach. In collaboration with the rest of the Portfolio team, the Principal will assess each grant opportunity through a rigorous analytical process, analyzing the track record and impact potential of innovative approaches to effectively catalyze large-scale solutions. Leading the team members in the due diligence review of the social entrepreneurs and their management teams, the principal will coordinate field visits and gather input from external domain experts. The Principal will partner with a portfolio of Skoll Award grantees, contributing to creative problem solving, facilitating further connections and accelerating impact. Applying holistic and original thinking to investments, the Principal will explore further prospects for the Foundation to contribute to realizing the promise of these innovations by mobilizing broader resources, communicating the potential impact to the global community, and providing partnerships for success.

Primary Responsibilities:

Generating Opportunities

Each Principal has a high degree of individual responsibility for analyzing and managing opportunities and risk, as well as engaging in thoughtful partnership with colleagues to encourage the team to make better, smarter decisions.

Demonstrating and Accelerating Impact

The Principal will apply deep analysis and track key metrics to evaluate the progress of portfolio investments and how they contribute to the Foundation’s collective impact.

Building Knowledge and Networks

The Principal will proactively build relationships not only with funded social entrepreneurs but also with various stakeholders across the Foundation’s focus areas, including domain experts, policy makers, consultants, thought leaders, and partner organizations. S/he will work across several focus area concentrations and assist with cross-sector learning and organization-wide initiatives.

Qualifications and Abilities:

-Portfolio management leadership, initiative, and a transactional orientation

-Analytical strength to look for patterns, study market dynamics, and introduce new metrics to demonstrate the potential impact of the entrepreneurs’ efforts

-Systems thinker able to see the big picture and leverage multiple forces and inputs for multimillion dollar investments

-Consultative mindset, problem solver, and relationship-builder -Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

-A proven track record of leading initiatives from structuring deals through implementation across the entire innovation cycle

-Sound judgment, the highest level of personal and professional integrity, honesty, humility, compassion, intellectual rigor, and accountability

-Collaborative nature, able to work cooperatively and independently with a team and able to manage multiple stakeholders, priorities, and projects

-Passion and demonstrated action for social change

Education and Experience:

-At least 15 years of experience in financial services or investment portfolio management in an international context is required. Experience with an international NGO, foundation, or nonprofit is essential

-Prior experience identifying, evaluating or leading investment portfolio and/or grantmaking transactions or coordinating major multi-stakeholder initiatives

-Significant understanding of the cultural complexities of living and working in the developing world, gained through experience with NGOs or nonprofit organizations is highly desired. -Entrepreneurial experience is an asset

-Domain experience in one or more of the Foundation’s focus areas is valued

-A relevant graduate degree preferred; a bachelor’s degree is required

How to apply:

For a detailed position profile, please visit:http://www.waldronhr.com/images/stories/Position_Specifications/skoll_pr...

The Skoll Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply. For immediate consideration, please use the reference code RW253 in the email subject line and send your resume and a cover letter expressing your passion for the mission and your fit for the role to Melissa Merritt atsearch@waldronhr.com