Finance & Innovation Lead

The World Economic Forum brings together leaders from business, government, academia, and civil society to address global challenges and improve the state of the world.

Within the Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate, the Forest Future Alliance (FFA) mobilises private-sector and philanthropic action to advance the conservation, restoration, and stewardship of forest landscapes in a way that is socially, economically and ecologically responsible.

Why we are hiring

FFA is expanding its finance and innovation portfolio and seeks a Finance & Innovation Lead to identify, assess and profile an expanding portfolio of investment opportunities, engage private and philanthropic stakeholders, and help create the enabling conditions to mobilize investment and innovation for forest conservation, restoration and stewardship in landscapes worldwide.

Critical forest landscapes face an investment paradox: despite their planetary importance, many lack the conditions to attract capital, specifically return-seeking investment. Resolving this requires patient capital, trusted intermediaries, an enabling policy environment and place-based approaches rooted in local ecology, culture and social trust.

Reporting line

The Finance and Innovation Lead will report to the Program & Partner Engagement Manager and work closely with FFA colleagues responsible for partnerships, philanthropy and communications, while interacting with staff at the Tropical Forest Alliance, Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) and the Forum’s Finance for Nature team.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the scoping, identification, design and delivery of forest landscape opportunities to support enabling conditions to unlock private and philanthropic investment and capital alignment in critical forest landscapes, in line with FFA member needs and FFA’s unique comparative advantage.
• Lead FFA events design and delivery for events associated with forest landscape opportunities in e.g. the Andes, Indonesia etc.
• Lead the development of thought leaderships and synthesis products designed to build awareness and support for forest finance and innovation.
• Build optimism and momentum through strategic communications that translate complex opportunities into compelling narratives and progress updates that attract new partners and sustain engagement.
• Oversight for innovative business models and financing mechanisms that hold potential to sustain long-term results for conservation, restoration, stewardship and resilience over time.
• Support the engagement of corporates, asset owners/managers, insurers, philanthropies, to understand primary on challenges, needs, and opportunities in the financing or forest landscapes and innovation. Calibrate these with the needs of civil society, NGOs and governments.

Requirements and experience

• 7–10 years of relevant experience across finance, investment, banking, nature finance, innovation and/or related fields.
• Understanding of capital structures and blended finance instruments to support capital mobilisation for complex multi-stakeholder initiatives (public-private-philanthropy).
• Strong stakeholder engagement and management skills with a focus on investors, corporates, philanthropy, and government counterparts.
• Strong project management skills including demonstrated ability to drive progress and prioritize and deliver on key activities such as convenings, partnerships and content curation.
• Ability to synthesize complexity and present compelling narratives in both written and oral communications.
• Excellent written and spoken English. French, Spanish and/or Portuguese would be considered a plus.
• Outstanding team player and collaborator.

To be successful, you should

• Be solutions-oriented, proactive, responsive to feedback, and comfortable operating in ambiguity.
• Thrive in a convening role, facilitating alignment across actors with different incentives and timelines.

Why join us?

Join an independent and impartial organization with over 55 years of connecting leaders to make sense of global challenges and move the world forward together.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements