DowDuPont (Linkedin, Crunchbase) (NYSE: DWDP) is a holding company comprised of The Dow Chemical Company and DuPont with the intent to form strong, independent, publicly traded companies in agriculture, materials science and specialty products sectors that will lead their respective industries through productive, science-based innovation to meet the needs of customers and help solve global challenges. For more information, please visit us at www.dow-dupont.com.
The Ventures leader is accountable to follow the defined deal process, which they will help develop, and ensure a consistent information is provided to the investment management team, including risk-adjusted business case, key milestones, commercial assumptions, technical assumptions, risks, commercial launch plan and post-launch documentation.
Key activities the Venture’s Leader will lead and/or participate in include:
- Partner internally with the business and research organizations to understand and inform their strategy, evaluate specific opportunities, gain business sponsorship, and identify specific activities to deliver strategic value.
- Develop strategic themes and actionable investment thesis in areas of strategic relevance to DuPont in collaboration with the investment committee.
- Leverage an existing deep external network to generate deal flow and relationships.
- Evaluate and conduct due diligence on specific opportunities to assess attractiveness and structure relationship.
- Communicate investment / partnership goals for each opportunity to the Investment Committee.
- Negotiate, structure & execute investments / partnerships
- Prepare review materials and Investment Memos for the Investment Committee and other leadership within DuPont.
- Oversee on-going relationships with portfolio companies to enhance strategic and financial value for both DuPont Pioneer and the portfolio companies, including serving as a Board Member or Board Observer if required.
- Negotiate and communicate successfully with entrepreneurs, management teams, syndicate partners, and other stakeholders, including attorneys, advisors and consultants.
- Represent DAV at various corporate venture capital, investment, and innovation conferences and topical industry events.
Job Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree, Graduate degree and technical background preferred; MBA optional
- 5+ years of prior Venture Capital experience; ideally with a leading institutional venture capital firm or corporate venture group
- Background in life science industry strongly desired with an agriculture background preferred.
- Must possess strong understanding of financial reporting and entrepreneurial management.
- Experience working with diverse, highly educated, technical professionals is required as well as ability to communicate with strong financial professionals including external investors.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Should be experienced with agriculture business and strategic planning with a preference for incumbent to have participated as member of a research and/or business leadership team.
- Customer focus, and experience facing customer needs
- Knowledge and fluency in emerging technology and business models in sectors relevant to DowDuPont
- Market, product and distribution channel knowledge and experience a plus
- Must have the ability to work independently to deliver on objectives when necessary, but also to team work with cross functional teams and work through influence
- Experience in portfolio management, including financial modeling and decision analysis
- Willing to travel 30-40% of the time including internationally
- Excellent people skills, including the ability to work effectively with all levels of organization’s employees to facilitate small groups and gain cooperation from other teams and individuals without direct authority to assign tasks.
- The position requires strong initiative. Must possess self-motivation, enthusiasm and a positive attitude.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with credibility and professionalism required of an organizational senior leadership team member.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate across disciplines successfully.
- Strong analytical skills, able to quickly assess situations, recognize problems, and discern root causes, can separate fact from ‘noise’ and develop approaches based on true organizational requirements
- Must have good judgment with the ability to think creatively and strategically
- Superior proactive networking and relationship development skills
- Proven teamwork skills both as a leader and cross-functional team member
Priority Core Competencies
- Strategic Vision
- Negotiation
- Financial acumen
- Cross Functional Team Leadership
- Customer Focus
- Persuasive Decision Maker
- Superb Communicator & Relentless Networker
If interested, please apply here.
