VP, Africa & Middle East Practice

Role Overview

Village Capital is hiring a Vice President to lead our Africa and the Middle East portfolio. This is a 12-month fixed-term position, with the possibility of extension if Village Capital meets its funding targets.

This is a senior, externally visible leadership role for an investment professional with a track record in fundraising and partnership relationship management. They'll be trusted by funders, investors, government partners, and foundation leaders, and will hold operational excellence and partnership growth as equally important, mutually reinforcing priorities.

They'll bring a solid understanding of the investment landscape, including the tools, structures, and language of early-stage investment capital (equity, debt, hybrid), blended capital, and philanthropic capital, to complement their operational and business development leadership in-region. They will manage regionally distributed teams leading both investment transactions and direct entrepreneur support, and must be fluent enough to oversee and drive a strategy that mobilizes capital to entrepreneurs in the Africa and Middle East region.

The Vice President will delegate with confidence, develop the people around them, and hold teams accountable without micromanaging. They are multidisciplinary, as comfortable in an investor meeting as in a program design session with a donor, and bring a systems-change approach to problem-solving in both settings.

Candidate Profile

The Vice President, Africa & Middle East is a mission-driven leader with investment experience in banking, entrepreneurship, impact investing, or international development, and is equally credible overseeing entrepreneur support programs, investment strategy, and funder and investor relationships. They are fluent in the language of early-stage investment capital, including venture capital (equity, debt, hybrid), blended capital, and philanthropic capital, and comfortable leading investment strategy conversations while supporting execution teams.

They lead with confidence and humility, and manage with cultural fluency. Critically, they work seamlessly across teams, actively building relationships and coordinating with internal stakeholders in different functions to accomplish shared goals.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Regional Leadership

• Drive multi-regional strategy across Africa and the Middle East, ensuring effective alignment between investment and entrepreneur support approaches, and coherence between regional priorities and Village Capital's global direction.
• Identify and advance strategic funding and financing opportunities within and across the regions, surfacing insights and recommendations as a member of the organizational leadership.
• Actively coordinate with regional and functional teams and leadership, collaborating on resource allocation and strategy, sharing learnings, and operating with a ‘one VilCap’ mindset, to ensure seamless integration across teams and to support organizational objectives.
• Serve as Village Capital's senior representative for the regional portfolio, both internally and externally.
• Partner with cross-functional colleagues (communications, business development, finance, data and impact, and other regional teams) to ensure integrated and quality execution.
• Stay current on trends in entrepreneurship, venture capital, innovative finance, philanthropic capital, and blended finance relevant to the region.

Partnership Development & Fundraising

• Lead strategic stakeholder engagement and business development across the regions, in collaboration with the Business Development team.
• Cultivate and steward relationships with investors, foundations, corporations, governments, and funders.
• Partner with the Business Development team on proposal development and donor reporting, and with the Communications team on pitch materials and case studies for organizational offerings (e.g., investment and entrepreneur support); provide strategic and budget input on new proposals.
• Co-develop regional and sectoral fundraising strategy and maintain a clear fundraising roadmap for the regions.
• Support efforts to secure long-term commitments and expand revenue across the entire portfolio.

Operational and Investment Leadership

• Own end-to-end delivery of entrepreneur support programs and investment initiatives running concurrently across the regions, ensuring both are designed and executed at a high standard.
• Own program and investment quality by reviewing and overseeing delivery standards, supporting direct reports with outputs management, and ensuring work meets organizational and funder expectations.
• Oversee execution of investment transactions, provide feedback and guidance on investment decisions and transaction structuring, and improve due diligence processes and investment frameworks as needed.
• Ensure efficient, flexible resource allocation across initiatives as priorities and needs shift.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of investment strategy and entrepreneur support, and contribute to organization-wide learning.
• Own budgets and expenditure priorities for key operational areas.
• Collaborate with delivery teams and internal working groups to keep curricula sharp and regionally relevant.

Team Leadership & Development

• Manage and support a geographically distributed team, including entrepreneur support delivery staff, investment staff, and contractors.
• Coach and develop direct reports; run regular 1:1 check-ins and performance conversations.
• Delegate effectively, matching work to team members' capacity, priorities, and development goals.
• Build a culture of learning, accountability, and leadership development.

Ecosystem Engagement & Thought Leadership

• Maintain strategic oversight of ecosystem engagement across regions, including Village Capital alumni and portfolio networks, investor relationships, and expert collaborator networks.
• Represent Village Capital at key ecosystem convenings and working groups relevant to the regions.
• Oversee thought leadership content representing your portfolio, providing direction and final review.

Reporting & Funder Communication

• Lead development and review of region-specific reports for funders and stakeholders, providing oversight and quality assurance rather than direct synthesis.
• Ensure reporting is supported by the right people and tools, addressing capacity gaps as needed through outside consultants and third-party platform management.

Requirements

• 8+ years of investment experience in banking, entrepreneurship, impact investing, or international development; entrepreneur support and ecosystem development a plus.
• A track record of building and running complex, multi-stakeholder lines of business at a high standard.
• Demonstrated track record in business development, including the ability to develop fundraising strategy, shape proposals, and steward multi-year funder commitments.
• Experience managing and developing distributed teams across cultures and geographies.
• Understanding of the early-stage investment landscape, the tools, structures, and language of venture, blended, and philanthropic capital.
• Experience in the investment space, either from the entrepreneur or investor perspective. Impact investing, venture capital, private credit, or DFI experience preferred.
• Culturally fluent, with a real, day-to-day commitment to equity.
• Comfortable operating at a strategic level while staying close enough to spot risk early.

Originally posted on Himalayas