Senior Banker, Head of the Volga Federal District (Samara Office) recruitment

Role Overview

Core role: The Head of Office is responsible for implementing the mandate of the EBRD in the Volga Federal District in line with the Bank's Strategy for Russia, representing the Bank vis-à-vis regional authorities and business community and making a significant contribution to the development, execution and management of the Country Team's projects and portfolio. The Head of Office will play an important role in originating, structuring and closing transactions using the full range of financing structures and instruments available to the Bank, as well as monitoring and managing the loans and investments. The Head of Office will also lead and coach a team of 3 junior Bankers focussing in different sectors, mainly but not only in Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness (ICA), Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure (MEI) and Financial Institutions (FI).
Background: TheEBRD's Regional Office in Samara was opened in 2008 and the Volga Federal District has been, since then, the district in which the EBRD has seen the strongest growth in terms of number of operations, volume and diversity of sectors out of all the EBRD Regional Offices in Russia. The Volga district represents about 10% of the EBRD activities in Russia with net cumulative business volume (NCBV) of about EUR 1.9 billion. There are several extremely high profile projects (both in the public and private sectors) in the pipeline and in the portfolio. To date, the EBRD has signed 79 projects in the Volga Federal District and actively works in the district. The current portfolio is worth EUR 1 billion. The office has a significant role in signing about 5-7 core transactions every year. The Volga Federal District comprises 14 regions with about 30 million inhabitants; 15 cities have more than 500,000 inhabitants. The size of the district is about 1 million square kilometres (twice the size of France) with relatively underdeveloped transport infrastructure. The proximity to Moscow and the Central Federal District enhances the potential target market of Volga companies. The Volga has traditionally been the heart of the Industrial and Chemical development of Russia and an important automotive cluster. The EBRD has developed strong relationships in Samara, Tatarstan, Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk, Bashkortostan and Saratov and maintains regular contacts with the other regions. The projects managed by the Samara Regional Office are therefore spread across the following sectors: Automotive, Metals, Chemicals, Property, Building Materials, Municipal Infrastructure and Banks. Position Objective: The Head of the Volga Federal District aims to implement the mandate of the EBRD in the district in line with the Bank's Strategy for Russia. The Head of office manages all aspects and activities of the Regional Office; this includes being the Bank's representative on operational, strategic and administrative matters. The Samara Regional Office is staffed with an established team of 5 including 2 Associate Bankers, 1 junior position currently under recruitment, 1 Senior Administrative Assistant and a driver. The local team works in close collaboration with relevant sector team Bankers based in other offices. This position is for an initial 3 year assignment, however candidates interested in extending the assignment beyond the initial period will be advantageously considered.

Key Responsibilities and Deliverables

Representation
• Developing and maintaining contacts with and acting as the Bank's representative to: the Regional Governments, Mayors, city administrators and authorities in the Volga Federal District of Russia, the local business community, the international community including other International Financial Institutions and bi-lateral donors, NGO's, the general public and the press
• Providing critical feedback to EBRD senior managers on changes and trends that may affect EBRD's strategy and projects
• Asserting and protecting the special privileges, exemptions and immunities of the Bank, its personnel, premises, records and facilities in the region

Operational
• Developing further the Bank's operations in the Volga Federal District in line with the Bank's mandate and the strategy for Russia.
• Leading business development by promoting EBRD activities to private sector companies, municipal utilities and banks in the Volga Federal District and by identifying at an early stage quality leads that are bankable according to EBRD standards. The business development is conducted in close collaboration with the Head of Regional Development, the sector Directors located in Moscow (ICA, FI, Infrastructure) and in Headquarters, and the other members of the Russia management team (in particular the Russian Managing Director and other MD's in London.
• Co-ordinating all project processing related to the Volga Federal District undertaken by Regional Office, Country and Sector teams to ensure regional priorities and clients' needs are met.
• Ensuring effective management and monitoring of the Bank's portfolio in the District.
• Project execution as project team member or when appropriate as Operational Leader (including due diligence, deal structuring and negotiation, preparation of documentation and presentation at the various levels of the Banks approval process).
• Taking a lead role on policy dialogue with the local authorities in agreed areas.
• Undertaking other operational tasks as may be assigned by the Managing Director Russia and/or the Head of Regional Development.

RO Administration and Staff Management
• Managing all RO staff: mentoring a team of bankers in all aspects of project preparation, credit analysis, project monitoring and helping them build good relationships with their clients, sector teams and support units.
• Managing staff related matters such as recruitment, performance management, appraisal, training, coaching as well as adherence to the Bank regulations; liaising with HR Client Management Team as and when appropriate.
• Overall management of RO facilities (office space, vehicle, equipment including, IT and telecommunications, provision of security, general maintenance, insurance, lease renewal, etc.)
• Budgetary control (preparation of yearly RO budget, expenditure control, payroll, etc.).

Essential Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• At least 10 years' experience in a major International Financial Institution or merchant/investment or commercial bank where he/she will have acquired high-level banking/transaction skills and demonstrable expertise in project finance.
• Sound level of banking/lending skills with a strong credit background and demonstrable competence in structuring and executing transactions.
• The successful candidate should ideally have a combined background in the private and public sectors and have gained good market knowledge of the region and its influential players, in order to understand local governments' agendas.
• Established experience in dealing with government officials and top management of private/public entities
• Proven ability to understand key basic issues related to the future privatization of public utilities
• Good relevant degree from a leading university in the country of education
• Fluency in verbal and written English is essential
• Functional verbal and written communication skills in Russian will be an important asset
• Computer literacy (including spreadsheet, and data-base packages, and financial models)

Competencies and Personal Attributes

• Integrity and Team Working - Ability to operate consistently within business guidelines and ethics and work sensitively in multicultural environments, building effective working relations with clients and colleagues to deliver the objectives of the team and the wider Bank.
• Planning Organising - Self-motivated, ability to work to and meet tight deadlines and to plan and organise work unsupervised in a logical and efficient manner.
• Communication Skills - Ability to communicate appropriate, concise and accurate information in verbal and written formats, appropriate to the audience at the time and confidence in handling ...