Big Issue Invest (BII) supports social businesses and charities to deliver social, economic, and environmental impact across the United Kingdom. Social enterprises let great people flourish, no matter where they start from. Since 2005 BII has supported over 550 organisations with over £80 million in funding. BII offers a range of repayable finance options, from loans as small as £20,000 to larger investments of up to £3.5 million. Current investees range from start-ups to established organisations, but they all share the Big Issue Group’s mission to create innovative solutions through enterprise to unlock social and economic opportunities for people in the UK affected by poverty.

BII has more than 150 investments at any one time through its direct lending business, and its FCA regulated fund management business. With £37m of assets under management, it is about to scale rapidly over the coming years. BII are on a spring to £150m, and thereafter, to a £500m business by the end of the decade. It has a rare range of investment approaches – from early stage, risk investments, regular lending and cash flow through to £3m+ investments in growing, developing social enterprises.

Big Issue Invest is a subsidiary of the Big Issue Group, which brings together media, investment and service initiatives under a shared mission to create innovative solutions through enterprise, to unlock social and economic opportunity for the 14.5m people in the UK living in poverty to earn, learn and thrive.

As Big Issue Invest continues to grow, its leadership team and the Big Issue Group is now looking for an Executive Chair to draw on their expertise for both day-to-day operations and overall strategy. The new Chair will provide guidance to the executive team, and be an important conduit between the Board, BII, and the wider Group, ensuring that Board expectations are reflected in business direction and execution on the ground. The boards of Big Issue Invest Trust, the fund management companies, and sub-committees will also report to the Chair.

General duties of everyone who is a part of The Big Issue Group include:

• Being committed to the social objectives of the Big Issue Group
• Being an ambassador for the Big Issue Group externally, and maintaining the professional reputation internally
• Maintaining awareness of all other aspects of the Big Issue Group’s work and assessing their implications  
• Adhering to and implementing the Big Issue Group’s Equal Opportunities and other policies
• Taking your part of the Big Issue Group's shared responsibility for maintaining a safe working environment with a good standard of efficiency

The principle responsibilities for the Executive Chair will include:

• Developing a vision for Big Issue Invest, aligned with the rest of the group
• Developing and nurturing the executive team, providing advice, support, mentoring, and coaching where required to ensure continued improvement in the performance of the executives
• Working with the CEO in a complementary, supportive and collaborative way while also offering appropriate challenge 
• Supporting the CEO to instil a dynamic, decisive and performance culture
• Setting and monitoring the strategic direction of BII
• Regularly reviewing the operational performance of the organisation to ensure that the company achieves its goals and objectives
• Ensuring an effective relationship between all Board members and stakeholders, and working closely with the Board to prepare for and pursue funding opportunities

Big Issue Invest is looking for an experienced Chair with a background in the UK regulated financial services industry, specifically with experience of debt, or potentially equity, financing; leveraged, mezzanine, venture debt, VC and PE are all of interest. They will therefore be highly experienced with assessing and managing risk, and will have a strong commercial mindset.

Candidates will be dynamic as well as entrepreneurial, and have held strategic, commercially-focused leadership positions during their executive careers. Ideally, this leadership experience will include growing small, lean businesses with relatively flat structures, and / or operating within subsidiary companies. They will therefore have an appreciation of the culture and challenges of smaller organisations.

The new Chair will be an excellent stakeholder manager and will bring strong networks within the UK financial services sector which they will be able to leverage to support BII's fundraising activities. They will be prepared to work cooperatively with multiple stakeholder groups including employees, executives, high-net-worth individuals, institutional investors and other funders, within the framework of a regulated financial services organisation. Candidates' relationship management experience will ideally be proven through prior board or committee experience, either in an executive or non-executive setting.

While previous experience working with social enterprises or purpose-led organisations is not required, applicants should demonstrate their personal engagement with BII's mission to create innovative solutions through enterprise to unlock social and economic opportunities for people in the UK affected by poverty. They will be able to take on board BII's mission, culture and history so that decisions are informed, but not bound by, its unique ethos.

On a personal level, the successful candidate will bring high emotional intelligence and be able to work effectively with, and independently of - as well as being accountable to - Big Issue Invest's co-Founders, Lord John Bird and Nigel Kershaw OBE.

Warren Taylor, Chair
Sara Redford
Sandeep Sachdeva
Louise Boothby
Martin Allen Morales
Mark Simms
Shaheen Verjee
Laurence Gosling

You can find out more about the Big Issue Invest team here.

This role is remunerated c. £24,000 p.a. (subject to discussion). The time commitment is estimated to stand at at least one day per week. The Chair attends BII's head office in Finsbury Park, London, at least once per week in addition to chairing bi-monthly Board meetings and attending the bi-annual Group Chairs’ meeting (for the Chairs of all the Group subsidiaries), relevant Board sub-committees and ad hoc corporate events. These are all held in-person in London.

The rest of the time commitment consists of ad hoc engagement with the BII executive team, particularly with the CEO, Danyal Sattar. The appointment is for a three-year term, which can be renewed once at the discretion of the Board.

UK- London