Gatsby Africa, Chief Portfolio Officer

The Chief Portfolio Officer (CPO) is a member of Gatsby Africa’s (GA) Executive Committee (ExCo). The CPO plays a critical role in shaping Gatsby Africa's future. Working closely with the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, and broader SMT, the role helps define the organisation's long-term strategic direction, ensuring Gatsby Africa remains positioned to achieve its long-term success and five-year strategic objectives in an increasingly complex and evolving environment.

The CPO ensures that Gatsby Africa's portfolio choices, programmes, strategic investments, partnerships, evidence generation and learning agenda work together to maximise sustainable impact and drive economic transformation. The role brings together strategic insight, portfolio leadership and organisational learning to identify future opportunities, guide investment decisions and continuously strengthen Gatsby Africa's contribution to systemic change.

Leading the Portfolio, Programmes, Partnerships, Investments, Impact/M&E, External Engagement and Government Engagement functions, the CPO drives coherence across Gatsby Africa's interventions while fostering a culture of learning, innovation and strategic adaptation. The role also ensures that evidence, economic analysis, government engagement and organisational learning are translated into stronger portfolio choices, more effective programmes and greater influence on economic transformation agendas across the region. The CPO also plays a key role in strengthening Gatsby Africa's external profile and thought leadership, ensuring the organisation actively contributes to national, regional and global debates on economic transformation and industrial development.

As a strategic partner to the Executive Director, the CPO helps ensure Gatsby Africa remains focused on the opportunities that will deliver the greatest long-term impact for Africa's future.

Essential Experience & Capabilities

Executive Leadership and Organisational Scale

• Senior executive leadership experience within complex, multi-country organisations, with accountability for organisational performance, strategy and long-term impact.

• Track record of leading through senior leaders and enabling high-performing, multidisciplinary teams to deliver against organisational priorities.

• Experience navigating organisational complexity, ambiguity and change while maintaining strategic focus and delivery.

• Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

• Proven track record of shaping organisational strategy and translating long-term ambitions into portfolio priorities, investment decisions and measurable outcomes.

• Experience providing executive oversight of diverse portfolios, programmes or strategic initiatives within complex organisations.

• Demonstrated ability to integrate evidence, performance insights and external trends into strategic decision-making and organisational planning

  Economic Transformation Expertise

• Significant experience in economic development, market systems development, sector transformation, or a related field.

• Strong understanding of economic transformation, industrial policy and broader development debates, with the ability to apply these insights to organisational strategy.

• Appreciation of how evidence, learning and innovation can be leveraged to improve development impact and organisational effectiveness.

  Government and External Influence

• Significant experience engaging with senior government stakeholders, policymakers, and other influential decision-makers.

• Experience contributing to thought leadership, policy dialogue, partnership development or broader ecosystem influence.

• Strong understanding of how strategic partnerships, government engagement and external relationships can be leveraged to advance organisational objectives.

  Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Demonstrated ability to influence strategic decisions and build alignment at Executive, Board and senior stakeholder levels.

• Proven experience coaching, supporting and constructively challenging senior leaders to drive performance and organisational effectiveness.

• Substantial experience operating in African contexts, ideally within East Africa.

Leadership Behaviours

• Deep alignment with Gatsby Africa's mission and commitment to African development.

• A strategic and future-focused leader who can identify opportunities for long-term transformational impact.

• Strong commitment to collaborative leadership, organisational learning and fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture.

• Leads through influence, coaching and empowerment rather than positional authority.

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and navigating complex systems.

• Demonstrates strong judgement and intellectual curiosity.

• Builds trust, credibility and collaboration across diverse stakeholders.

• Combines strategic thinking with a strong focus on delivery and impact.

• Maintains high standards of performance, integrity and accountability.

• Demonstrates cultural awareness and inclusivity across multi-country contexts.

Desirable

• Experience in economic transformation, industrial development, market systems development, public sector reform initiatives or international development.

• Exposure to co-financing, blended finance, catalytic capital or investment approaches.

• Familiarity with emerging technologies and their implications for economic transformation and impact.