Investment Officer, Strategic Market Tools Initiative

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

In 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established a Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) with the mandate to use equity, debt and guarantee investment tools to further the philanthropic goals of the organization. Currently investing $2.5B, the fund has become a leader in the “impact investing” industry successfully completing more than 100 investments across a variety of sectors and asset classes. The 14-person investment team is seeking an Investment Officer dedicated to the Strategic Market Tools initiative. The Strategic Market Tools initiative partners with program strategy teams, to structure, negotiate and execute complex transactions with private sector entities, multilaterals and governments. The Officer will focus on the volume guarantee portfolio of investments and will also provide advisory support across the foundation’s program strategies on various structured finance products and/or complex, multi-stakeholder investments.

Volume Guarantee Investments
Uncertain demand, inefficient procurement practices and the associated higher prices for global health commodities often limit access to life-saving products. Volume guarantees address access barriers by providing manufacturers with multi-year contractual volume commitments in exchange for reduced prices that help increase the supply of high-quality commodities. These firm contracts improve scale production economies and reduce procurement inefficiencies, resulting in sustainably lower prices. SIF began piloting volume guarantees in 2010 and created a formal initiative in 2013. Since then, ~20 transactions totaling over $1.5B of guarantee commitments have been completed, accelerating adoption of vaccines, family planning commodities, HIV drugs and malaria bednets while generating $1B+ in procurement savings.

The volume guarantee initiative covers a number of the foundation’s strategic priority areas and are made in support of the charitable impact goals of these program strategy teams. Representative past investments from the volume guarantee portfolio include:
• $230 million volume guarantee and prepayment loan to Biological E to
support additional low-cost supply of pentavalent vaccine;

• $120 million volume guarantee to Bayer AG and Merck & Co. Inc. which ensured a market for the companies’ contraceptive implants in exchange for a commitment by the manufacturers to increase their production and lower their prices in the low and middle-income countries (LMICs);

• +$300 million combined volume guarantees to Mylan Laboratories and Aurobindo Pharma to support the introduction and supply of new HIV drugs at affordable prices in LMICs.

• $100 million guarantee to UNICEF Vaccine Independence Initiative (VII), to accelerate LMIC access to critical global health commodities while domestic financing is mobilized.

As an Investment Officer you will report to the Director of the Strategic Market Tools initiative. In this position, you will negotiate lower prices on critical public health commodities for the poorest countries, support the introduction of new products and use innovative financing tools to shape creative solutions to reach lower prices, enable greater commodity supply and facilitate the introduction and adoption of new valuable health products in the foundation’s priority geographies. You will work in close collaboration with program colleagues across the foundation’s program strategy teams to identify, structure and execute investments that advance the foundation charitable goals. This role will sit at the intersection of the private and public sector, and will require engagement with senior leadership of companies, donors, UN agencies and key implementing partners to shape and manage these public-private partnerships.

Success in this role requires a deep understanding of market dynamics, key business drivers & commercial incentives, along with the ability to manage and interpret complex financial documentation. Accordingly, the ideal