Senior Vice President - Center for Environment and Peace

Feb 3, 2014 | Conservation International

About the Senior Vice President, Center for Environment and Peace

The Senior Vice President for the Center for Environment and Peace will implement an ambitious strategy encompassing international policy goals, ambitious fundraising targets and the development of a new program area focusing on the relationship between peace and the environment. S/he will work with governments, bilateral and multilateral institutions, international development agencies and organizations, and global policy processes to further the understanding of the value of natural capital and to drive the adoption of policies, governance structures, and development investments that recognize nature’s essential role in healthy, sustainable and peaceful societies.

The SVP will drive the strategic, programmatic and financial operations of the Center for Environment and Peace, providing oversight to the work of 35 staff based in the US, Japan, Belgium and Costa Rica.  S/he will work in close collaboration with other divisions within Conservation International (CI) to link high-level policy efforts with applied natural and social science models based on CI’s successful track record in the field.  

S/he will provide strategic guidance to the Center for Environment and Peace team in the development and implementation of strategies to achieve our goals and will serve as the organization’s ambassador at the highest levels for these efforts with partners and donors, and with CI’s Board of Directors. S/he will be responsible for leveraging $50 million in financial resources, over four years, to support the efforts of CEP.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy

  • The SVP will lead a team of experienced professionals to achieve the deliverables of the Center for Environment and Peace. S/he will provide leadership and direction to the Vice-Presidents of Global Public Policy and Social and Environmental Governance and their teams to refine and implement the strategy for the Center including setting direction for a new program area focusing on environmental peacebuilding, drawing on the experience of Conservational International and its partners to promote lasting solutions to natural resource-driven conflicts.  
  • Identifying and engaging key constituents (governments, multilateral/bilateral institutions, development organizations, strategic fora) and partners to positively influence the development paradigm and to amplify our work. 
  • Developing CI’s global policy and public funding agenda to shape and influence national, international, multinational policies on the connections between environment and development agendas, and secure of $25 million annually, from public funding sources to ensure the funds needed to carry out CI’s mission.
  • Strengthening the focus on social policy, accountability, and practice in all of CI’s work (i.e., research, guidelines, practice, safeguards and measurement) as a set of underpinning and crosscutting issues that impact achievement of sound governance of natural capital and its integration into development agendas at global, national and local levels.
  • Integrating CI’s hubs of influence in Asia and Europe and engaging other CI Divisions - US Government Policy, Field Program Divisions, the Moore Center for Science and Oceans, and Ecosystem Finance & Markets unit to ensure close collaboration to best support CI’s mission.

Leadership

  • Lead relationships with institutions and agencies that play key roles in policy and funding on international environmental issues, especially those for which CEP has institutional responsibility: UNFCCC, UN CBD, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and governments of Germany, Japan, and Norway.   
  • Serve as a member of CI’s senior leadership team, representing the Center for Environment and Peace in various leadership fora including the Leadership Group and other senior-level committees responsible for decisions affecting the institution.
  • Serve as a liaison to the Board of Directors in matters under the purview of the Center for Environment and Peace, in particular the Policy Subcommittee. 

Fundraising

  • Ensure the financial sustainability of CEP by fundraising and securing gifts at the multimillion dollar level from high net-worth individuals and foundations for the operational expenses of CEP as well as for the CEP endowment fund, with a target of $50 million over the next 4 years.
  • Ensure coordination of CEP’s fundraising efforts with all other fundraising units in the organization.

Partnerships

  • Build partnerships and collaborate with institutions that can help CI address the destabilizing impact of resource depletion on the well being of people and reduce conflict through the preservation of the natural capital needed to sustain healthy ecosystems.
  • Represent CI in fora and build partnerships needed to advance CI’s agenda.  Secure broad buy-in and support of our efforts.   
  • Develop and maintain relationships with key constituents to promote CI’s global policy objectives and to influence policy decisions by Governments and leading institutions.

 People and Program Management

  • Exercise overall responsibility for the human and financial resources of the Center for Environment and Peace and its departments (35+ people, operating budget of ca. $10M annually).  Align staff toward objectives and manage performance.  Ensure fiscal oversight of the unit’s budgets. Oversee and integrate CI’s hubs of influence in Japan and Europe to best support CI’s mission. 
  • Promote coordination with all relevant programs in CI.  
  • Fulfill all legal obligations required as member and/or director or trustee of independent affiliates.  Act as CI’s representative for contractual matters, legal and regulatory compliance.

Working Conditions

  • This position is based in CI Headquarters in Arlington, VA
  • Willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 40% time