KOMAZA Country Director Job in Kenya

KOMAZA Wants an Experienced entrepreneur to be Country Director of fast -
growing social enterprise in Kenya.

Industry: Forestry & Wood Products; Social Enterprise; International Development

Position: Country Director

Start Date: As soon as available (preferably by Aug 2011); applicants reviewed on a rolling basis

Commitment: Long-term commitment (i.e. 5 years minimum)

Location: Kilifi, Kenya; see komaza.org/recruiting for details

Compensation: Competitive with international businesses/NGOs

Position Summary:

The Country Director will develop and lead all business functions in Kenya required for rapid growth, reporting directly to our COO and working closely with our founder/CEO, both of whom will be based primarily in San Francisco, USA (traveling to Kenya for 25-50% of the year). This is a big opportunity for a dynamic, entrepreneurial candidate.

About KOMAZA:

KOMAZA is one of the most highly-awarded early-stage social enterprises in the world, working to end extreme poverty for rural families living in dry lands. We provide families with access to the complete forestry value chain: planting inputs for a half-acre tree farm, farmer training and maintenance support, and harvesting, processing and wood sales operations.

Founded in 2008, KOMAZA has won support from several prestigious international foundations: Draper Richards, Mulago, Peery, and Jasmine. We currently have over 150 full time staff in Kenya. To date we have planted over 675,000 trees with nearly 3,000 families. Our forestry operations are transitioning from proof-of-concept to scaling and we are developing a pilot for our decentralized tree harvesting and processing operations.

We aim to become the largest forestry enterprise in Africa, with a target of 50,000 farmers by 2015. We are registered as a 501(c)3 in the USA and an International NGO in Kenya and are
exploring future market financing.

The Role: Country Director

Management of all Kenya Operations:

KOMAZA Kenya headquarters is currently located in Kilifi town, one hour north of Mombasa. Ganze town, our first area of operation is a ~45 minute drive inland. Over the next few years we aim to scale throughout Coast Province. The Country Director will be responsible for high-level leadership and management of Kenya operations, including:

• Program Direction and Leadership: Work with founder/CEO, COO and other corporate leadership to develop long-term, annual, and quarterly goals; building on the KOMAZA social impact and business model, develop a vision for growing the country program and a plan for achieving the vision; take the leadership role in inspiring collective goals, executing plans, providing direction to Kenya country staff, ensuring accountability, and leading in change management
• People and Project Management: Directly supervise 4 managers in planning, organizing, staffing, and directing activities; manage an overall office staff of currently 25 employees; lead organization re-design efforts as organization grows quickly; coordinate major projects and activities in a comprehensive organizational work plan
• Finance: Direct short-term and long-term budgeting; provide oversight to management team on financial planning and reporting; oversee monthly/quarterly/annual financial management (budget currently USD 1m and growing quickly)
• Partnership Development: Liaise with local and Nairobi government officials and other NGOs and businesses to build relationships that will facilitate the quality and scaling of our operations
• Operational Branch Development and Replication KOMAZA’s operations (silviculture to primary processing) are delivered through Branches, each led by a Field Director, comprising ~200 field staff and serving ~10,000 families across ~250km2. The Country Director must lead the development and monitoring of all operational systems for a Branch, and then replicate this unit across Coast Province and then other drylands in Kenya. The Country Director will be responsible for supervising the development of all aspects of Branch operations, including:
• Branch HR: Hiring, training, and monitoring performance of our field extension network – Facilitators in each village, Field Officers managing Facilitators, and Field Managers overseeing large areas of operation
• Social Marketing: Communicating with local opinion leaders (chiefs, village elders), educating farmers about the opportunity to partner with KOMAZA to grow trees for income, and recruiting farmers into KOMAZA’s program
• Silviculture: Nursery operations; family land preparation, planting, and maintenance
• Wood Harvesting & Processing: Felling, hauling, primary processing, wood treatment, etc.
• Wood Product Sales: Oversee sales agents based in towns, cities, and international distributors
• Monitoring & Evaluation: Develop strong systems to track key operational performance indicators and to measure program outputs ($ to farmers) and social outcomes
• Branch Office Systems: Branch-level financial control, procurement, logistics, administration, HR, IT, etc.

Qualifications, Experiences and Skills

Required:

• Entrepreneurial: Self-motivated; holds self to high level of personal accountability; comfortable with ambiguity and interested in a work environment that is creative and flexible while also data-driven
• Leadership: Proven ability to enlist the aid and support of others to achieve shared goals; keen to build a winning team and lead a fast-paced, rapidly-growing program
• Education: University degree; business management concentration or MBA preferred
• Work: 8-12+ years of business/organizational management experience required; 5+ years in forestry, agriculture or production preferred
• Financial Management: Experience owning P&L results: revenue/sales growth and expense/margin control
• Technology: Internet & MS Office fluency required; demonstrated passion for technology integration (project management software, bar coding for chain of custody, GIS mapping, etc.)
• People Management: Experience supervising both senior and junior staff, motivating staff, managing team morale, incentivizing performance, and managing disciplinary issues; experience hiring and firing all levels of staff – from frontline workers to senior managers
• Project Management: Strong background managing complex projects; high competency creating, managing, and executing project plans; passion for systems and process-improvement projects to scale high-quality operations with strong attention to building key performance indicators into systems
• Training & Mentorship: Interest and passion for professional development and training of all levels of staff
• Communication: Excellent writing/verbal, interpersonal, public speaking, and presentation skills
• Willingness to Travel: Some travel will be required within Kenya; also possibly occasional international travel

Highly Preferred:

• Organizational Growth: Proven ability to build and substantially grow an organization; start-up experience is even better; organization redesign experience also a plus
• Experience in Farm Extension: Experience building farmer extension networks, consolidating produce from smallholders and moving it through entire value chain
• Forestry and Wood Processing: Growing, harvesting & processing trees for high-margin wood products

Compensation and Benefits

We are looking for a world-class candidate; compensation will be competitive

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