Associate Director, Investments, Natural Climate Solutions job in Sydney

New Forests (www.newforests.com.au) seeks a qualified candidate for the position of Associate Director, Natural Climate Solutions. In this role you will be primarily responsible for the identification of potential investment opportunities, undertaking due diligence and executing on transactions as part of New Forests’ natural climate solutions (NCS) investment strategy. This role will be part of a newly established team focusing on New Forests’ NCS investment strategy. The position is based in our Sydney office, but will have an international mandate.

New Forests is an investment management business offering leading edge strategies in forestry, land management, and conservation. Our business mission is to manage sustainable landscapes for production and conservation and to generate shared value for our clients and the communities where we operate. Founded in 2005, we offer institutional investors dedicated investment strategies in the United States, Australia‐New Zealand, and Southeast Asia and have over AUD 5.6 billion in assets under management. We manage sustainable timber plantations, natural forests, forest carbon projects, rural land, and processing  infrastructure. New Forests is headquartered in Sydney with offices in San Francisco, Singapore, New Zealand and Melbourne.

New Forests believes that sustainably managed forest landscapes can play a significant role in mitigating the impacts of climate change, while also providing other valuable economic, social and environmental returns. As part of the company’s growth strategy, New Forests is exploring new business  opportunities and is seeking to attract capital to invest in NCS.

In this role you will work closely with the Director, Business Development and with teams across our business to develop and successfully execute on New Forests’ NCS strategy. We are seeking to mobilise corporate, institutional, development finance and philanthropic capital to fund the implementation of natural climate solutions to help mitigate climate change through the reforestation of degraded lands, improved management of natural forests and avoided deforestation.

In this role you will be:

• Building a pipeline of potential NCS investment opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region and potentially other geographies
• Working with internal and external parties to analyse, prepare investment committee materials and execute on NCS investment transactions
• Responsible for staying well-informed on relevant market developments and trends, regulation and policy, and opportunities related to NCS investments, and reporting on such internally.

Other important elements of this role include:

• Assisting with deal negotiations for both small- and large-scale target investments.
• Designing, coordinating and overseeing due diligence on target opportunities and investments.
• Preparing reports and committee materials on time and to a high standard.
• Presenting results and managing discussions with internal resources, the Investment Committees and New Forests’ clients.
• Assisting with investment thesis development and new fund products, from time to time.

We are looking for candidates with:

• 7 - 12 years’ experience working with natural climate solutions, forestry, land management or environmental market projects, preferably in an investment context.
• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, forestry, environmental management/ science or equivalent.
• Excellent project management capability along with outstanding organizational skills related to time and project management.
• Experience working with natural climate solutions, forestry carbon projects and in alternative assets (e.g. timber, carbon, infrastructure, real estate, private equity) and/or impact investing and sustainability, an advantage.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent verbal communication including presenting and storytelling ability; ability to learn and process large amounts of information quickly and confidently present New Forests’ vision, mission, investment capability.
• Excellent writing and editing skills with ability to conceptualize and understand how to communicate complex information through presentations, briefing notes, investment committee papers and other media; able to work with other people in New Forests to develop these materials in a timely and high quality manner.
• A demonstrated and knowledgeable interest in sustainability and responsible investment.
• A positive, can do attitude
• Punctual, professional and outgoing personality that likes to assist people.
• Ability to build strong relationships and work within a team environment
• Ability to adapt to change quickly and effectively; comfortable with managing ambiguity
• Can work in a variety of environments and with different levels of people
• The ability and desire to work as part of a team and work well under pressure and deadlines.
• A high degree of proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)
• A willingness to travel.

What can we offer?
Our environment is busy and supportive, and the team is professional but relaxed. If you join us, you would be joining a growing, fast paced business which is an environmental and sustainable leader in forestry investment. You will also be working with professionals who are passionate about their work!

This is a great opportunity to become part of this NCS initiative and if you are adept at contributing to something that is “new and different” we would welcome your application.

To apply, please provide your resume and cover letter, explaining your interest and qualifications for the position, in PDF format, to careers@newforests.com.au.

Phone calls will not be accepted.
New Forests is an Equal Opportunity Employer.