Chair of The Board - London, United Kingdom - Fair Finance

Fair Finance

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

About the role

Role title:
Chair of the Board

Term of appointment:
Initially a 3-year term. Possibility of re-appointment for a 2nd term.

Time commitment:
Approximately 25 days per year

Remuneration:
£10,000 per annum

The Role:

Our current Chair has reached their term limit and having helped us secure the investment for our next stage of development will be leaving us in early 2024.

We are now looking for a new Chair to provide oversight and drive the implementation of our strategy so as to lead us through the next stages of development and growth for Fair Finance.

The Chair works closely with the Chief Executive and other senior managers to ensure the success of the organisation and is responsible for ensuring that the Board fulfils its governance responsibilities.

These are set out in a series of governance documents based upon the Principles of Governance for Unlisted Companies (Institute of Directors, The Chair also provides a link between the Board and the wider stakeholder group, and between the Board and the staff who deliver services to the customers.

The Chair will be expected to work closely with the CEO to realise our ambitious vision and ensuring that the organisation has the resources to achieve its strategy.

This is a pivotal time for the business as it manages the current business, while also transforming its model, and ensuring that it can bring its clients, stakeholders and staff with it.

The Chair, and Board, will help to keep the business focused on its strategic aims and mission of inclusion.

_Commitment _

The Chair will be expected to lead our four in-person Board meetings per year which are usually held quarterly and timed for early evenings.

In addition, they will be expected to join or support at least one of the sub committees of the Board.

Initially the Chair will be appointed for a threeyear term, with the possibility of reappointment for a second threeyear term.
The time commitment for the role is estimated at 25 days per year (comprising Board/Committee meetings, time with key leaders including the CEO and potentially external meetings with stakeholders.

_ Skills and experience_
The role of Chair is a regulated position, holding the SMF9 role as prescribed by the FCA (SUP 10C

5A FCA governing functions:
Oversight - FCA Handbook)

Key skills/attributes expected of the Chair would include:

Strong affinity with the values of the Company and the mission to tackle financial exclusion at scale.
Knowledge and experience of the financial services sector.
Experience of working with commercial and/or social investment sector.
Experience of fundraising and or raising capital.
Knowledge and/or experience of the social business and social investment sector.
Knowledge and experience of corporate governance processes and practices.
Ability to build good working relationships with the senior management team and external investors.

What is Fair Finance:

Fair Finance was launched in 2005 by Faisel Rahman in a converted doctor's surgery on an East London council estate.

It was established as a local community response to offer a direct alternative to doorstep and illegal moneylenders in one of the poorest parts of the country.

The idea built on Faisel's experience of microfinance in South Asia and applied its principles of success in the UK.

We are a not-for-profit social business offering an affordable loan product to get people out of extortionate debt and on a pathway out of exclusion.

In addition, we've developed money advisory services for people struggling to manage their finances and a business lending offer to local businesses and entrepreneurs.

We grew initially through a network of branches across London before expanding online and across the country.

The pandemic resulted in the closing of our physical branches and the business continuing the online journey into a digital business.

Our focus remains on the people left behind by the mainstream financial sector and on some of the poorest in society.

We are supported by a range of social investors, both individual and institutional who finance investment into the growth and development of the organisation, as well as commercial banks who finance the growth of the loan book.

The people at Fair Finance represent a cross section of commercial and social sectors who have chosen to pursue a career of purpose.

Many of Fair Finance's staff members have first-hand experience of the issues we're dealing with, and some may have previously been clients.

Others are attracted to the social mission of the business and the opportunity to achieve impact at scale.

Over the last few years, the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have really highlighted the importance of our work, and as such we are embarking on an ambitious program of growth and transformation so that we can meet the challenges facing some of the poorest and most excluded in the coming years.