Laudes Foundation is an independent foundation accelerating the transition to a green, fair and inclusive economy. We do this by supporting brave action that inspires and challenges industry to harness its power for good. We focus on four key industries with an outsized impact on climate change, nature and social inequality: the built environment, finance and capital markets, fashion, and food. Complementing these industry-specific initiatives, our cross-cutting work in labour rights, finance and narratives amplify our impact across all sectors.

The Head of Fashion will report directly to the Director of Industry Programmes and will be based in Gurgaon, India.

This role is responsible for the delivery of the fashion programme strategy and grant-making, as well as creating effective coalitions for change with organisations in the field and other funders and philanthropies. The role also holds additional administrative responsibility as Managing Director for Laudes India LLP.

Key responsibilities

Vision. Developing a vision for how to inspire and challenge the fashion sector to be a force for good in addressing the climate crisis, as well as the ensuing transition to a more sustainable fashion system and its impact on people and nature.

Strategy. Implement and lead the strategic plan for the Fashion programme, deepening grant making and learning in the programme’s priority intervention areas, working closely with the Director of Industry Programmes in both programme implementation against approved strategy and further programmatic development.

Programme Development. Oversee the team and play an active role in sourcing and identifying potential grant partners working to inspire and challenge the fashion industry to transition to a more sustainable and fairer future. Act as a subject matter expert to ensure that the Fashion team is designing partnerships that form a grant portfolio of mutually reinforcing and complementary grants that achieve the programme’s goals towards systems change. Work with Effective Philanthropy colleagues to develop and champion rubrics to guide measurement of impact.    

Programme Delivery. Oversee the team that is implementing grants, working with them to effectively deliver the programme strategy, including maintaining programme credibility and capturing/disseminating learnings to improve programme impact.

Collaboration. Working as a leader of the Foundation to build a culture of collaboration, including close relationships with other Heads to drive an integrated systems change approach.

Representation. Act as an ambassador and thought leader internally and externally to build the credibility and leadership of the foundation in the field. Country level representation as Laudes India LLP to various government departments, diplomatic missions, trade bodies and other important stakeholders.

Advocacy. Identify partners the foundation can work with to affect broader change in fashion, building a strong network to grow the foundation’s pipeline by having a deep understanding of the levers that can be utilised to promote change. 

Results. Achieve programme targets, as contained in the strategy objectives, and oversee monitoring and reporting of results in the required formats, in partnership with Effective Philanthropy. 

Administrative oversight. With the objective of mitigating country level risks, provides administrative oversight for country level compliances of Laudes India LLP, including legal, taxation, treasury, company law, labour law as well as other laws of the land.

Financial management. Manage the annual budget (both programmatic and administrative) of the Fashion d programme, reporting results to the Director of Industry Programmes. 

People management.  Inspire, lead and support the Fashion team to deliver on their individual and team objectives and the overall success of the programme as a whole. Team members may be geographically spread between across Laudes Foundation offices.

What you need for the role

• At least 15 years of strong practical experience working in the fashion sector;
• Knowledge of fashion supply chains and climate and labour and broader social impacts in those supply chains.
• Vision and creative “out of the box” thinking to challenge the status quo of the fashion industry that results in climate and nature degradation and labour exploitation.   
• Understanding the role of finance in advancing the sustainability of fashion sector transformation.
• External credibility (e.g., having participated as a speaker in relevant fora) and strong networks in the fashion sector. 
• Experience developing programme strategies and solving deep systemic challenges in a complex and dynamic environment (e.g. experience working in strategy, sustainability, philanthropy, etc.). 
• Prior experience in grant making, including: developing coherent portfolios of complementary grants; management of a grant making team that works efficiently and with respect for grant partners; management of grant making budgets and the ability to use grant information to enhance programmatic and operational decision-making and learning. 
• Management experience with a proven track record of inspiring and motivating dispersed teams and building a culture of high performance, collegiality and ambition.  
• Experience of running a small office and managing a legal entity. Working knowledge of relevant compliances and laws of the land including FCRA, audit and financial systems, company law etc.

Geographic scope                Global but based from Gurgaon, India.

Travel Expectations                 Up to 30% travel

Budget Responsibility      Accountable for Fashion Programme budget (~7M EUR/annum)

Reports to                              Director of Industry Programmes

Direct Reports                            Laudes Team India

Salary bandwith                        INR 7.048.456 - 10.476.054