Executive Director

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BACKGROUND

RECOFTC – the Center for People and Forests - is an international not-for profit organization that specialises in capacity building for community forestry and devolved forest management. RECOFTC engages in strategic networks and effective partnerships with governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector, local people, and research institutions throughout the Asia-Pacific Region and beyond. RECOFTC focuses its efforts on six countries – Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

RECOFTC has a policy of term limits for its Executive Director – currently two successive five year terms. As the current Executive Director is nearing the end of his final term, RECOFTC is currently seeking a new Executive Director to provide dynamic leadership and build on its more than 20 years of experience in capacity building through targeted training, research and analysis and demonstration projects.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Executive Director is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center and its most senior person. The position reports directly to the Board of Trustees.

The Executive Director is responsible for both the strategic leadership and the overall management of the Center and ensures that it operates to the standards expected of an international organization.

The Executive Director as the Chairman of the Center’s Executive Committee, he/she is responsible for signing all deeds, contracts, arrangements and other legal documents which are necessary to ensure the operations of the Center. He/she is RECOFTC’s legal representative as delegated by the Board of Trustees.

The Executive Director also heads the Center’s Strategic Management Group, and supervises the operations of the other functional units within RECOFTC. Currently, the functional units are, Capacity Building and Technical Services (CBTS); Communications, Marketing and Fundraising (COMAF); Corporate Services (CS); and Program Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation (PROCOME).

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Executive Director’s main tasks and responsibilities include:
• Liaising with the Board of Trustees and key stakeholders to ensure that the vision, mission and programs of the Center remain relevant to the evolving needs of community forestry and devolved forest management in the Region;
• Ensuring, in liaision with the Board of Trustees, that the Center and its work programs are adequately resourced.
• Ensuring that annual work plans, budgets and statements of expenditure are provided to the Board of Trustees for approval;
• Ensuring that the Center’s programs are delivered efficiently and effectively and that effective monitoring and evaluation systems are in place;
• Facilitating learning by doing and ensuring effective knowledge management to meet the evolving needs of community forestry and devolved forest management in the Region;
• Providing overall leadership in managing the human, financial and material resources of the Center;
• Developing effective partnership networks of institutions, interns, associates and alumni to meet the evolving needs of community forestry and devolved forest management in the Region;
• Fostering close linkages with funding partners and other institutions with similar interests for programmatic and financial support; and
• Fostering the development of a cadre of community forestry leaders to both meet the management needs of the Center and advance the development of community forest and devolved forest management in the Region.

KEY ATTRIBUTES
The Executive Director’s key attributes include the following areas:

COMPLEXITY/PROBLEM SOLVING:
• Negotiates complex agreements, sometimes in politically difficult environments
• Develops and implements creative ideas to improve institutional performance
• Formulates, evaluates, and decides broad organizational policies and long-term programs
• Anticipates, diagnoses, and resolves complex problems and identifies creative solutions
• Designs, implements, and directs complex and diverse work programs, encompassing multiple projects and coordinating the work of many professionals, inside and outside the organization. Incorporates cross-disciplinary knowledge to support program objectives
• Highly diversified work involves participation in the formulation and evaluation of broad policies and/or long-term programs, or making decisions, which typically have broad organizational impact.
• Directs major program of strategic importance to the Center through management of multi-disciplinary teams.

DISCRETION/LATITUDE/DECISION-MAKING:
• Assesses decisions’ potential impact on the Center’s work, public image, credibility, and financial and legal standing
• Makes independent strategic decisions based on analysis, experience, and judgment
• Where necessary, makes decisions based on incomplete or ambiguous information and accepts associated risks

RESPONSIBILITY/OVERSIGHT – FINANCIAL AND SUPERVISORY:
• Takes overall management and leadership responsibility.
• Recruits, retains, manages and develops a high quality and effective multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary staff with responsibility for performance management, training and career development.
• Establishes clear directions and sets strategic objectives.
• Develops long-term strategies and achieves strategic goals and objectives
• Identifies cultivates and solicits major donors in support of program activities.
• Overall responsibility for financial management of program, including setting financial goals, analyzing results, and taking corrective actions.
• Ensures that programmatic commitments, financial standards, and legal requirements are met.

COMMUNICATIONS/INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES:
• Builds cooperative relationships within the Center and with key clients and partners.
• Commands respect and attention, transparently changes tactics midstream as necessary, and manages group processes during presentations or discussions
• Ability to speak with and in front of varied audiences on priority topics and the Center’s mission;
• Ability to establish excellent working relationships with outside partners including government agencies, social groups, social entrepreneurs, land managers, and the academic community. Leverages constructive and effective relationships with outside partners.
• Works effectively in high-tension situations and maintain composure under pressure. Diffuses high-tension situations comfortably
• Ability to articulate lessons learned regarding community forestry successes and failures
• Ability to simplify and explain complex policy issues to general audiences
• Creates and communicates a compelling vision; practices the Center’s core values.

SELECTION CRITERIA
The Executive Director of RECOFTC will be a recognized scholar-practitioner with wide understanding of both the theory and practice of community forestry and the personal attributes needed to lead and effectively manage an international capacity building institution.

Selection criteria for the position include:
• A post graduate degree, preferably a PhD or equivalent, in a discipline relevant to community forestry and devolved forest management. Applications will be particularly welcomed from candidates who also hold formal management qualifications such as an MBA and/or demonstrated achievements in results-based management.
• Demonstrated experience with policy development and the field practice of community forestry and devolved forest management in the Asia-Pacific Region.
• An established record of scholarly publications on both the conceptual development and the practice of community forestry and devolved forest management.
• Demonstrated experience in leading a multicultural, international institution or program of strategic importance, including program design, implementation, management, evaluation and reporting.
• Excellent inter-personal and verbal/written communications skills in English. Skills in other regional languages will be an advantage.
• Demonstrated success in strengthening human resources and institutional capacity among staff members and partner organizations.
• Well-developed skills and proven expertise in fundraising, specifically, but not exclusively, from public agencies, including: identifying donor prospects, donor cultivation, proposal development and donor relationship management.
• Willingness and ability to travel approximately 30% of time within the region as well as to North America, Europe and other international destinations as per need.

Applications from female candidates will be welcomed. Preference will be given to candidates from the Asia-Pacific region.

APPLICATIONS
Applications should be sent to the address below or the e-mail address latest by Sunday 6 March 2011, and should include a cover letter, Curriculum vitae and up-to-date contact details of three referees, including recent Line Managers.

Please quote the position title on the envelope or the subject box in the email. Only short-listed candidates will be notified. A remuneration package in line with qualifications and experience will be negotiated with the selected candidate.

RECOFTC, P.O. Box 1111, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10903; Fax: 66-2-5614880; Email: HR@recoftc.org

 
To learn more about RECOFTC, please visit our website www.recoftc.org

RECOFTC is an equal opportunity employer and the successful candidate will be selected based on merit.
 

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