Chief Executive Officer – National Wealth Fund

The Chancellor of the Exchequer wishes to appoint a CEO for the National Wealth Fund. Leadership of the NWF involves leading a growing organisation of up to 400 staff, managing the evolving portfolio of debt/equity investments and guarantees, developing a multi-billion pipeline into active projects and companies, and building strong relationships with central, regional and local government.

The CEO is responsible for the ultimate executive leadership, day-to-day management and performance of the NWF – including ensuring the NWF delivers against the strategy and targets set by government and the board. In addition, the CEO will have public facing responsibilities and will be expected to manage the bank’s relationship with HM Government, act as its ambassador, and ensure it delivers in line with its mandate. More specifically, responsibilities will include:

·       Leadership and strategy – as the Accounting Officer and most senior executive leader within the NWF, the successful candidate will have accountability for ensuring the institution is high performing and effective, delivering against the objectives set out by the board and the NWF’s mandate (including both financial and policy outcomes).

·       Operational performance – final responsibility and oversight of the NWF’s balance sheet and investment portfolio, ensuring that its investments are commercially suitable, ensure good corporate governance, that they deliver against the government’s policy objectives, and that risks are managed appropriately.

·       Working with the NWF board and HM Treasury – work closely with the board, advising on investment opportunities and economic risks that could impact the fund, and where relevant, present to HM Treasury as the shareholder and Ministers – ensuring that they are kept updated on relevant performance in a timely manner and how the portfolio is building in line with overarching policies and objectives.

·       External stakeholder relations – engage effectively with key stakeholders, including regional and local authorities, devolved administrations, mayoral combined authorities, investors, academics and advisory groups. Act as an ambassador for the NWF as required and champion its reputation.

·       Recruitment and talent – ensure the NWF is an outstanding employer, capable of attracting, retaining and motivating excellent and diverse talent.

·       Working with the wider executive team and employees – build strong collaboration with the wider ExCo, ensuring alignment of the organisation’s activities and NWF’s key objectives. Work effectively with the senior executive team and wider senior employees of the NWF across banking, portfolio management, local authority lending and advisory, risk, regulatory, policy, legal and back-office functions. Provide both leadership and collaboration in these relationships. Offer appropriate challenge and support to drive performance.

·       Culture – nurture the culture of excellence, diversity, collaboration and professional integrity within the organisation, in all aspects of operations. Continue to ensure that the Leeds office is successful both as a headquarters for the NWF, employer within the region, and culturally as a unifying institution outside of London which contributes to the agenda of supporting regional and local economic growth. Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and accountability in a supportive environment with a strong focus on learning and development, ensuring that bullying and discrimination are never tolerated and actively discouraged to prevent their occurrence.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is the UK government’s primary Public Financial Institution and is at the forefront of investing public money for our future.

The NWF will have £27.8bn of financial capacity. It will have an increased risk appetite with up to £7bn in economic capital to hold against investments. Its mandate is set out in its Strategic Steer from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, although will operate with a high degree of operational independence day-to-day, especially with regards to investment decisions. Through its leadership role, the NWF provides markets with the long-term certainty to build and support investor confidence. It invests in key projects to reduce carbon emissions, create jobs, improve the UK’s economic security and support regional and local authorities to invest in their areas.

To date the NWF has invested £5bn, mobilising £12.5bn of private finance and created 18,600 jobs. The Chancellor set the ambition to go further over this parliament, entrusting NWF with additional capital to be deployed over and above the original commitment.

·       Financial capability: The successful candidate will have a proven track record in a senior role with a deep understanding of financial markets, economic trends, investment strategies, financing structures, asset classes, and portfolio management. They will provide effective oversight of these areas, ensure that the NWF’s investments are commercially suitable, manage risk appropriately, and deliver against policy objectives. They will demonstrate success in leading the oversight, evaluation, and management of investment projects across the full project cycle, from initial scoping and origination to risk analysis, execution, and documentation. They will also understand the operation of risk management processes in the effective and secure running of a portfolio comparable to NWF’s.

·       Leadership: The successful candidate will have proven experience as a CEO or in a very senior executive leadership role leading high-performing professional teams in a financial institution and able to develop, define and communicate a long-term strategy for the NWF that aligns with HMG’s missions and priorities. They will have managed organisations with a high degree of scale and complexity.

·       Communication: The successful candidate will be an excellent and persuasive communicator able to lead and inspire the NWF’s employees and build credibility with government leaders at central, regional and local levels, financial and international institutions and other public sector organisations. They will also be able to perform to a media audience.

·       Stakeholder engagement: The successful candidate will be skilled in managing relationships and capable of representing NWF nationally and regionally, positioning the NWF as a respected and strategic operator in the UK investment landscape, helping develop the broader investment ecosystem.

·       Strategic vision: The successful candidate will have the ability to drive forward a multi-faceted organisation with different needs under challenging or changing circumstances. They will also be capable of building support for an ambitious vision across multiple stakeholder groups.

·       Change management: The successful candidate will be able to adapt to a changing landscape of shareholder demands and lead an organisation through a period of change. Comfortable with ambiguity, and able to provide stable, foundational leadership.

·       Public-Private sector experience: Capability to navigate intersection of public policy and public finance with private investment, and comfort in a regulated environments and situations that attract political attention (e.g., in Select Committees) is desirable. It would be advantageous if the candidate has experience influencing and navigating HMG at a senior level and/or direct experience working with government or an arm’s length body, or similar.

·       Regional investment: Experience of working with sub-national, mayoral, regional and local government or devolved governments and an understanding of the challenges and financing barriers they face is desirable.

·       Sector and product experience: Experience working in the NWF’s priority sectors and deployment of its product suite is desirable.