Job Title:
Chief Executive
Reports To:
Alacrity Foundation, Chair & Board of Trustees
Salary:
£80,000 per annum, depending on qualifications and experience
Contract Status:
Full-time
Monday – Friday:
Normally 9.00am – 5.00pm
Location:
Newport, South Wales
Background
The Alacrity Foundation is a charitable trust funded by government support and philanthropic contributions. Alacrity is a unique post-graduate entrepreneurship programme which works with external partners to identify demand driven opportunities suitable for new company creation. The core programme provides cohort members with applied business training, software skills and expert mentoring to launch their own companies.
The Role
The Chief Executive is a key member of the Alacrity Leadership Team and pivotal in the Foundation’s strategic direction and stakeholder management. The primary role, working with the Foundation’s Chair and Board of Trustees, is in setting the strategic direction of the Foundation and overseeing the day-to-day operations. The Chief Executive maintains a strong relationship with the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. In particular, the Chief Executive engages with local, regional, national and international organisations in the identification, specification development and management of Foundation projects. The role holder, through their institutional network, assists in the management of external relationships. The Chief Executive ensures, with the Finance Manager, that the governance and financial integrity of the Foundation’s is maintained at the highest level. The Chief Executive oversees the Foundation’s fiscal activity, including budgeting, reporting, and auditing. A significant part of the role is overseeing the cohort members, the staff and contractors of the Foundation. There may be some expectation for evening and weekend work and domestic and international travel.
The following provides an indicative* percentage weighting of the role’s responsibilities in terms of the role holder’s time:
- Management of the Team 15%
- Employee development 10%
- External Organisation Relations 15%
- Strategic Oversight 10%
- Foundation Governance 10%
- Graduate education and mentoring 30%
- Other Duties 10%
*N.B. This is indicative and may not reflect the actual allocation of the role holder’s time.
Main Responsibilities
The post holder will be responsible for:
Strategic Oversight
Working alongside the Chair, Board of Trustees and Leadership Team, the Chief Executive shall:
- Create, communicate, and implement the Foundation’s vision, mission, and overall direction.
- Lead the implementation of the overall Foundation’s strategy.
- Solicit advice and guidance, when appropriate, from the Chair and Board of Trustees.
- Formulate and implement the strategic plan that guides the direction of the Foundation.
- Oversee the complete operation of the Foundation.
- Evaluate the success of the Foundation in achieving its goals.
- Pursue potential sources of funding for the Foundation.
- Represent the Foundation to all stakeholder groups.
Management of team
- Management of staff and cohort members of the Foundation on a day-to-day basis.
- Supervise the recruitment and performance of contractors.
- Monitor performance of the teams.
- Conduct a regular review process.
- Recommend an incentive plan for outstanding performance of staff members.
Staff Development and Performance
Ensuring a continuous staff performance and development process through the following actions:
- Build a positive and productive culture in the workplace by listening to employee and Trustee opinions, making adjustments where necessary.
- Create an effective staff development programme.
- Ensure diversity in participation of the educational opportunities.
External Organisation Relations
Ensuring a proactive and high standard of external institutional relations through:
- Maintaining and extending the Foundation’s active engagement with both private, public and third sector stakeholders.
- Identify and nurture external commercial sponsors for the operations and programmes of the Foundation.
- Liaising with the Head of marketing to deliver partner acquisition and retention strategies.
- Create effective media strategies with the Board of Trustees.
- Nurture philanthropic sources of funding for the Foundation.
Foundation Governance
With the Finance Manager, ensure the highest level of governance and financial probity are maintained through:
- Ensuring good governance structures for the Foundation and the good conduct of all aspects of the Foundation’s activities.
- Assuring all regulatory and legal documents are filed.
- Monitor compliance with laws and regulations.
- Overseeing the Foundation’s fiscal activity, including budgeting, reporting and auditing.
- Policy setting, financial probity and annual budget setting.
- Implementation of the agreed policy and budget.
- Manage the Risk Register for the Foundation in conjunction with the Board of Trustees.
Programme Project Management
The Chief Executive is responsible for providing high quality services in the following areas ensuring the efficient and effective management of programme projects through:
- Government and Higher Education relationship development.
- Project identification.
- Developing suitable project specifications (briefs).
- Alongside the partners ensure periodic reviews of the projects undertaken.
Training Programmes
Overseeing training activities. Working with the programme manager, the post-holder is responsible for providing high quality services in the following areas ensuring efficient and effective training programmes to the Foundation’s cohort members and the wider business communities:
- Maintain a relevant educational curriculum.
- Management of overall programme costs.
- Monitoring the financial viability of taught programmes.
- Ensuring quality and value of the taught curriculum.
- Supervising the transition to on-line learning platform delivery when appropriate.
Other Duties
As a member of the Leadership Team, the post holder is responsible for providing high quality services in the following areas ensuring the development of the Foundation through:
- Providing good leadership and guidance to the wider team and a high level of support for the administrators in the on-going development of Foundation.
- Ensuring access to relevant management and benchmarking information, sharing with and advising team members.
- Engaging with any other duties appropriate to grade as required by the Chair and Board.
The Person
The ideal candidate should have the following qualities, skills and attributes.
Essential
- Proven experience as a Chief Executive or other senior managerial position.
- Experience in developing successful strategies and implementing vision.
- Strong understanding of financial and performance management principles.
- An ability to manage conflict and create a harmonious working environment.
- Familiarity with diverse business functions such as marketing, PR, finance etc.
- In-depth knowledge of corporate governance and general management best practices.
- An entrepreneurial mindset with outstanding organisational and leadership skills.
- Analytical abilities and problem-solving skills.
- Educated to at least degree level standard or equivalent.
- Ability and confidence to work independently and unsupervised and to make decisions as necessary.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to interact effectively with a wide range of people from different backgrounds and cultures and at all levels of the Foundation.
- Ability to prioritise workload to meet multiple deadlines, and forward plan.
- Accuracy and attention to detail, and ability to maintain this under pressure.
- IT Skills, using MS Office. Strong spreadsheet skills are particularly important.
- Understanding of the Charities Commission Governance model.
Desirable
- Professional or Trustee experience within the third sector.
- Experience of working in an entrepreneurial focussed environment.
- Quantitative and accounting skills.
- Experience of working with young people.
- An understanding of digital marketing including content. management and social media.
- Experience in Government relations.
- A proven track record of working with the media.
- Experience in software and systems development.
- Report-writing skills.
- Experience in institutional and government fund-raising
Benefits
This is a full-time position working 37.5 hours per week. Holiday entitlement is 25 days per annum plus eight days of public holidays.