Agri-Platform CEO at Mezzanine

About the role 

The Agri-Platform CEO will lead a multi-sided pan African marketplace business that will improve the efficiency of agriculture in Africa. The marketplace will drive cross-side network effects that will benefit all stakeholders on the platform.

The Agri-Platform CEO is responsible for developing and leading the business plan based on the business model and case, orchestrating the configuration of the ecosystem to promote uptake of the marketplace, and develop long term strategies and short term tactics for growth. The Agri-Platform CEO will drive stakeholder engagement, guiding the stakeholder proposition development and evaluating stakeholder success. The Agri-Platform CEO will provide leadership and strategic direction to the business’s overall performance, inclusive of managing the annual approved budget and Profit & Loss.

The ideal candidate will be a creative, visionary leader with entrepreneurial drive and excellent communication skills. A background in ecommerce, digital marketing, digital platforms and digital demand generation would be an asset to drive this business forward.

The individual will be a detail oriented planner that can still be adaptive and responsive when required. The individual will have a comprehensive understanding of how to generate cross platform value for all stakeholders.

The individual will be a leader that is capable of building a team of experts that have the skills and ability to scale the platform at multiple levels. Achieving scale for the farmers and achieving scale for all the other tenants and stakeholders will require a segmented understanding of the ecosystem. Understanding the smallholder farmer level all the way to a global enterprise food off-taker, global financial institutions and multinational corporations.

The individual will ideally have Africa work experience in a platform/marketplace environment and a proven track record in working with businesses of all sizes.

Requirements

• 5+ years’ C-level experience
• Experience in building a marketplace / eCommerce business
• Bachelor’s degree in Commerce or any other relevant field, or equivalent work experience
• Excellent presentation, elicitation, negotiation, and communication skills
• Keen understanding of the fundamentals of financial analysis, business modelling and budget processes
• Strong business acumen, strategy development and systems thinking to deal with complex systems

Advantageous

• Experience with upscaling digital platforms that are used to support agricultural activities in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Masters degree