JumpStart - President, JumpStart Advisors
Title: President, JumpStart Advisors
Reports to: CEO
Anticipated Hire Date: ASAP
Commitment: Full-time Position
Location: Cleveland, OH preferred but not required
About JumpStart Inc.
JumpStart Inc. is a non-profit venture development organization whose vision is to solidify, celebrate, and continually grow Northeast Ohio as a nationally significant center of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Over the last six years JumpStart has been focused on leading and executing a wide range of programs and initiatives to build an entrepreneurial, high-growth ecosystem in Northeast Ohio. Its work has been recognized with numerous national awards including recognition from the U.S. Commerce Department stating that “JumpStart is the best and brightest example of 21st century economic development”.
Beginning in July 2010, JumpStart will launch a new effort in partnership with national foundations and other partners to leverage JumpStart’s expertise and experience and share its knowledge with communities outside Northeast Ohio. This work, which is fully funded for the next 24 months, will help these communities better understand the drivers of their regional innovation and startup economies and will lead to building new strategic and tactical action plans. In turn, these action plans will result in regional wealth creation as a result of the creation of innovative startup companies that have the ability to attract significant equity investment and create jobs and opportunities in their communities.
Position Summary
This is an
exciting opportunity for a business leader who has significant
experience in providing direct consulting services, as well as managing
multiple consulting project teams, and would like to lead a nationally
significant effort that has the promise to transform the way regions
think about their innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, how they
can work most effectively and kinds of the operational partnerships that
are critical to the success of these efforts.
Primary Responsibilities:
- To provide strategic and tactical leadership to this new area of activity as well as architecting how JumpStart will provide these advisory services
- To have full P&L responsibility for this new line of business
- To effectively manage multiple internal, as well as third-party consultants, service providers, partners and clients
- To represent this line of business to all of JumpStart’s stakeholders including its funders, clients, board and employees
Key Objectives
- To effectively and successfully launch this new effort
- To be a significant strategic and tactical business leader and collaborator with JumpStart’s CEO and other senior management team members
- To create and supervise a new team consisting of both existing (in-house) resources and outside contractors
- To leverage and extend JumpStart’s brand from being a great programmatic non-profit focused on one region to an organization that is informing the country with best-in-class thinking and tactics around economic transformation via high-growth and high-impact entrepreneurship initiatives and programs
Qualifications and Requirements
- Minimum of 5-7 years of experience providing direct consulting services to complex clients, experience in working with governments, public/private partnerships and economic development activities a strong plus
- Minimum of 2-3 years of having priced, sold, billed and managed multiple complex consulting engagement projects and teams simultaneously, understanding the balance between timelines, budgets and quality
- MBA or advanced degree required
- Extremely strong written and verbal communication skills
- Strategic thinker with orientation towards detail, deadlines and process
- An ability to quickly gather and analyze market data, across varied industries and technologies and to confirm each business’ product and target market assumptions
- Extremely strong interpersonal skills that enable one to be comfortable leading, mentoring, following and supporting others, depending on the circumstances, in a fast-growing, entrepreneurial organization
Additional Traits JumpStart Seeks
- Demonstrated Excellence – Achieves excellence and takes initiative as demonstrated in three distinct examples of where the candidate has achieved excellence on a meaningful level
- Tenacity - Tenacious confidence in the pursuit of vision as well as the avoidance of that which is not core to the vision. Can create and articulate a compelling and sound vision for how objectives fit into the bigger picture
- Entrepreneurial Intelligence - Makes wise decisions despite ambiguity. Quickly grasps key concepts and focus areas before diving into details. Can re-conceptualize issues to discover practical solutions to hard problems
- Adaptability - Thoughtfully but quickly adapts strategies or tactics to changing market conditions, available resources or underlying assumptions. Is comfortable with ambiguity and is able to speak off-script. Embraces and initiates change
- Initiative - Acts like an owner picks up the trash when no one is looking. Executes with a sense of urgency, seeks to “get there first”. Spots opportunities for improvements in efficiency, product quality, customer service, etc. that are not core to their responsibilities. Never says, “that’s not my job”
- Impact
(Bias-to-Action) - Accomplishes amazing amounts of important work in a
short period of time
- Surrounds themselves with A+ Players in order to achieve superior results. Seeks to eliminate complexity at all times. Identifies root causes, and gets beyond treating symptoms. Smartly separates what must be done well now, and what can be improved later
- Communication - Seeks to understand before being understood (good listener). Is concise and articulate in speech and writing, explaining complex details in simple, understandable terms. Provides frequent and consistent relevant updates to stakeholders, investors, customers and employees. Not afraid to say what you think even if it is controversial
- Selflessness - Seeks
what is best for the company, rather than what is best for his/her
interests. Casts a wide net and is non-political when searching for the
best ideas. Gives credit when things go right and takes responsibility
when things go wrong. Shares information openly and proactively
Compensation
Salary and benefits are competitive to that of a nonprofit consulting partner with additional opportunities for regional and national leadership, building a business within a successful and growing organization and making a positive difference in the communities serve.
How to Apply
For consideration, please EMAIL your resume and cover
letter with salary history to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Please enter “New Opportunity” in the subject line.
PLEASE NOTE
Due to the anticipated
volume of applicants, only email submissions will be considered and only
candidates meeting the stated requirements above will be contacted for
an interview. No phone inquiries and no faxes please.
Learn more about JumpStart.
For more information visit: JumpStart Careers - JumpStart Inc.
