Business Development Manager

Background:

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization founded in 2000 that manages 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering 20 million hectares. This is achieved through long-term agreements with national governments, putting in place funding solutions and establishing good governance and management to achieve ecological, social, and financial sustainability.

AP has numerous commercial development projects throughout the portfolio that all require business plans through to effective implementation and execution. The Business Development Manager will be responsible for providing Parks the professional support to develop effective and realistic business plans for commercial developments within the respective parks. This will include support through design, implementation, and execution of the respective projects on the ground.

Job Purpose:

The Business Development Manager will be responsible for delivering realistic business plans for commercial projects as well as advising and driving the effective delivery of the approved AP commercial investments in the Parks.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Commercial Development Business Plans:
   • Structuring an effective commercial business plan template as well as a financial modelling template for the Business plan.
   • Helping the parks design and develop realistic and professional business plans for execution of commercial projects.
2. AP New Products:
   • Develop new revenue-generating commercial ventures in appropriate Parks.
   • Assisting the parks in the delivery and subsequent execution of the commercial project.
   • Assisting the parks in recruiting and training the right personnel for the specific projects.
3. Existing AP Projects:
   • Supporting the AP commercial park teams by ensuring quality control in product delivery throughout all AP managed commercial projects.
   • Helping to develop a Net Zero framework and its application in improving commercial operational efficiencies in all AP commercial projects.

Minimum Requirements:

• Tertiary qualification
• A minimum of 7 years in the high-end safari industry – both in operations and sales and marketing.
• Experience and evidence in African Tourism developments from concept through to successful execution.
• Basic bookkeeping and financial acumen
• A professional, fun, creative, team player who is willing to share ideas and learnings with others
• The ability to take initiative, with excellent planning and organizational skills
• The ability to also work independently and be self-motivated
• Attention to detail with a high level of accuracy upon execution of tasks
• Comfortable with multi-tasking on various tasks simultaneously
• Capable of nuanced and complex written and verbal communication
• Computer literate – Microsoft Office 365 (Outlook, Share Point, Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.)
• The ability to build and manage relationships with a wide variety of people and cultures
• Working knowledge of French, a distinct advantage
• Must be prepared to travel throughout the AP portfolio and spend at least one week of every month in Johannesburg.