About the Role
LeapFrog Investments is looking for an exceptional leader to spearhead two critical initiatives:
- To define, measure, communicate and scale the impact of our Climate investments, while continuing to achieve best-in-class social impact. As the leader of this important aspect of LeapFrog’s Climate Investment work, you will develop and implement LeapFrog’s Climate impact strategy to continue to stay at the forefront of the global impact investing industry
- To evolve and elevate LeapFrog’s approach to embedding environmental considerations into its existing Financial Services and Healthcare investments
To achieve the above imperatives, you will:
- Lead the design of LeapFrog’s approach to impact measurement and data analysis in Climate
- Be a thought partner to the Climate leadership group on trends in the impact investing industry and their relevance for the Climate portfolio and LeapFrog across the relevant regions including South Asia, South East Asia and Africa
- Have a broad understanding of international policy level trends across Europe and US
- Prioritise high-impact projects across the Climate portfolio and across the firm in collaboration with different functions
- Provide direction on impact and ESG assessment of new investments as needed
- Initiate high impact partnerships with investors, donors, and industry network
- Work with other Global Partners to ensure alignment with impact initiatives occurring at the firmwide level.
About LeapFrog Investments
LeapFrog invests in exceptional businesses in Africa and Asia, partnering with their leaders to achieve leaps of growth, profitability, and impact. Founded in 2007, LeapFrog invests in companies that have now reached 342 million people across 35 countries with financial and/or healthcare services. LeapFrog companies have also grown on average at 27% annually from the time of investment. They now provide jobs and livelihoods to over 160,000 people. Inspired by its strategy of Profit with Purpose, LeapFrog will have raised over US$2bn from global institutional investors. LeapFrog was ranked by Fortune as one of the top five Companies to Change the World, alongside Apple and Novartis, the first private investment firm ever listed.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Lead evolution of Climate impact strategy to ensure industry distinctiveness, including evaluation of the impact thesis of new sub-sectors LeapFrog should consider investing behind
- Lead the creation of new impact measurement frameworks for new Climate subsectors or refine existing impact measurement frameworks to ensure alignment with best-in-class impact frameworks and standards
- Oversee/lead the Impact and ESG diligence for new and follow-on investments and at exit
- Oversee/lead the monitoring and compliance for implementing sustainability/impact and ESG gap analysis and agreed upon plans for investee companies over the required tenure including working with investee companies to help them implement the same
- Lead analysis of impact performance of Climate portfolio and provide recommendations to Climate leadership group, as well as support overall portfolio performance review and requirements from LeapFrog’s investment governing bodies
- Management of internal and external stakeholders of LF Climate Impact supporting firm-wide portfolio review and impact sessions, impact projects, reporting, impact thought leadership, value creation and process improvements
- Coordinate reporting within the speedboat and interface with Investor Relations and Finance teams
- Drive cross-firm impact initiatives in Climate portfolio and coordinate with Labs/Experts as required
- Develop relationships with LeapFrog’s existing and prospective investors and impact industry network
- Represent LeapFrog at conferences, industry committees, and investor meetings as required
About You
We invest in companies that support and empower a diverse group of people globally and foster an inclusive environment that reflects this broad array of perspectives.
We will consider remarkable individuals who demonstrate intelligence, passion, imagination, empathy, determination, and a deep commitment to delivering both profit and social impact – even if their specific qualifications and experience do not fit the below.
Qualifications and Experience
- Minimum 7-10 years’ experience in sustainability or environment related roles
- Demonstrated excellence and repeated successes in a number of the following areas:
- Understanding of EU/US investors’ expectations and management thereof, as well as their ESG requirements e.g., SFDR
- Understanding the complexity of implementing sustainability projects in Emerging Markets
- Experience assessing climate risks and opportunities
- Deep understanding, contributing to, and developing impact measurement and management approaches and methodologies
- Deep understanding of the private equity investment process spanning origination, acquisition, value creation, monitoring, reporting and exit
- Ability to represent institutional vision and strategy externally in key forums and with LeapFrog investors
- Data analysis, preferably using large volumes of data to drive company strategy and further innovation
- Understanding consumer behavior, ideally with a focus on low-income consumers
- Relevant Master’s degree and exposure to emerging markets are both highly desirable
Competences and Attributes
- Outstanding communication skills (both verbal and written) and advanced PowerPoint skills
- Superb relationship-building skills with internal and external stakeholders at various levels and professionalism
- Experience working in diverse and global teams, seeking input from, and harmonizing diverse perspectives and practices
- Demonstrated commitment to social impact and entrepreneurship and strong interest in scalable solutions in Climate and equitable Climate access globally
- Financially literate with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Intellectual drive and capacity to enable speedy integration into all of LeapFrog’s activities and investments, as well as the broader global investment and impact spaces
- Attention to detail and excellent organisational skills that will enable exceptional project management of multiple activities of others and self, across multiple time zones and under tight deadlines
- Proactive self-starter with drive, flexibility, and resilience to get things done and quickly reprioritise tasks as needed
- A willingness to work across time zones and availability and interest to travel internationally. We maintain a flexible work policy across the globe to make these unusual hours work for teams and families