Company: Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator

Location: Barcelona or New York City strongly preferred / other locations considered

The recent IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5°C starkly emphasizes the urgency of addressing all sources of greenhouse gas emissions including by aggressively pursuing natural climate solutions. The protection and restoration of tropical forests is one of the most significant opportunities to mitigate climate change over the coming decades.  Alongside political and regulatory efforts, the challenge is to create market mechanisms and mobilise finance at the necessary scale.  After more than a decade of progress on the technical and policy framework for verifying forest carbon credits (known as REDD+ credits), there is now a historic opportunity to turn this vision into a reality.

With support from the government of Norway, and partnerships in place with the Environmental Defense Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator (“Emergent”) has been created to respond to this opportunity.  Emergent will “prime the pump” for a high-integrity, high-volume REDD+ market by acting as an aggregator and intermediary to help overcome barriers for both buyers and sellers. On the supply side, Emergent will provide reliable access to jurisdictional REDD+ carbon credits for public and private buyers in both the regulatory and voluntary carbon markets.  On the demand side, it will provide forestry projects and entities operating at jurisdictional scale with a guaranteed source of demand for their REDD+ credits, facilitating access to a range of buyers.

Emergent has recently been incorporated as a new not-for-profit entity (a US-registered 501(c)(4)) and has appointed a board and an executive director. It is now beginning to build the team able to rise to the REDD+ challenge.  Reporting to the Executive Director, the Chief Markets Officer (CMO) is a critical role.  The role holder will have significant autonomy within a small, high-performing team to shape and catalyse a new market, with the potential for a profound impact on climate change and our environment. 

The CMO will be expected to work closely with Emergent’s Chief Operations & Strategy Officer (COSO), who is primarily responsible for defining Emergent’s transactions architecture and business model.  The CMO’s primary responsibility will be on Emergent’s sellside, leading relationship development and negotiating sales of carbon credits with entities such as industry consortia, airlines, energy companies, public sector clients (eg metropolitan authorities) and, in time, potentially retail customers.  They will also lead on the development of buyside relationships with the national and sub-national (“jurisdictional”) programmes that generate REDD+ credits. The CMO will also manage an analyst and support their work developing materials for Emergent’s transactions on both the buy and sell side, with additional support members recruited into their team as Emergent grows. This role will require previous experience selling environmental commodities to corporate actors along with knowledge of this industry and relevant relationships.  An established profile in carbon markets is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and develop a pipeline of opportunities on both the supply and demand sides of the REDD+ market
• Lead development and execution of a strategic business plan that will drive high volumes of credits through Emergent
• Lead development of marketing materials, proposals, pitch documents, etc
• Manage prospective buyer and seller engagement and relationship development
• Develop and manage relationships with key buyers, including leading development of concept notes, structuring documents etc for use in negotiations
• Lead development of financial models and transaction templates, working closely with the COSO and Emergent’s legal support team
• Manage structured negotiations and transactional documentation through to closing
• Manage a growing team in a dynamic environment
• Manage relationships with external parties such as legal counsel
• Maintain a profile as a thought leader in the emerging REDD+ sector
• As a member of the leadership team, play a substantial role in the development and profile of Emergent as an organisation

Requirements

• BA/BS and relevant graduate (MBA, MPA, et. al.) degree or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 10 years’ work experience in a relevant client-facing environment (e.g., contract negotiation, sales, corporate advisory).
• Experience preparing, negotiating and executing multi-million dollar proposals and contracts.  (The boundaries of responsibility in this regard between the CMO and COSO will be agreed in discussion with the Executive Director.)
• Track record of working and negotiating with senior international clients in the public and private sector.
• Familiarity with global financial markets, preferably with experience of carbon credits
• Familiarity with the international climate policy framework, including UNFCCC, REDD+, Paris Agreement, etc
• Passion for the mission of Emergent and the application of innovative financial structures to address global issues   
• Excellent interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills
• A high level of personal credibility at all levels within Emergent and partner organisations
• Advance analytical and numerical competency
• Willing and able to engage at both strategic and detail level to develop innovative solutions to a wide range of challenges
• Ability to deliver consistently high levels of accuracy, efficiency and follow-through
• Ability to travel internationally at short notice
• Ability to thrive in a small, entrepreneurial and often virtual team environment

Emergent provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Please include your cover letter and resume as a single PDF document when applying.