Agri-Food Specialist

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Events and workshops: Direct and organize various workshops/events/webinars for the program, and execute the same with the help of team members and external consultants.
• Partnerships: Forge partnerships with other organizations for providing services to the startups or the organization; marketing the program, sponsorships, etc.
• Liaison with the government, academia, and industries, locally and internationally.
• Marketing the Agri-Food track and its Development: Be the face of the Agri-Food track and actively promote it through various channels, etc., work with the Communications team on ensuring maximum exposure.
• Prepare all required reports and maintain a comprehensive set of records on all related activities.
• Liaison with other related projects: related to the sector (consortium, innovation funds, etc.)
• Play an advisory and guidance role to startups in our accelerator program.
• Heavily involved in the agriculture and food startups, from connecting them to field experts, prototyping to finished products, and provide help to open both new marketplaces (sourcing and selling) and establishing partnerships to accelerate their startups.
• Actively involved in the program outreach to attract Innovative Argi-Food startups in Tech, Engineering, and Food Innovations and young professionals that will feed the pipeline of creating the next-gen Agripreneurs.
• Working closely with QOOT, Lebanon’s Agri-food Innovation Cluster and other programs to create the synergies and linkages in the field.

Startups Acceleration Component

• Pre-incubation: Lead Flow generation, Screening of proposals, Research, Patent landscaping, working with entrepreneurs on market validation through the acceleration team.
• Mentor Network: Develop the mentor network for the acceleration program and work with the acceleration team to make the supported ventures successful.
• Acceleration and Incubation: Lead formation of new business and keep track of the Incubation process; help the startups prepare proposals, connect to market, clients, users, get funding, etc.
• Funding for Incubator Projects: Work with co-ordination with senior management for setting up grant support and seed funds for startups.

Other Agri-Food Projects Support

• Implementation support: Support in outreach activities and beneficiaries’ acquisition and support with sector related linkages and advises.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture or food processing, with an M.Sc. or MBA, is needed.
• Passionate about innovation and knowledgeable about new technologies and trends in the Agrytech and foodtech.
• Six plus years experience in agriculture or food processing field.
• Fluent in Arabic and English (oral and written) – French is a plus.
• Proven experience implementing projects in agriculture, agribusiness, and value chains preferable in product development/field.
• Relevant experience in smart agriculture practices, food security, agribusiness programs, agriculture value chains, NGOs, and donor organizations or the private sector.
• Knowledge of technology trends, industry participants, and leaders in the developer community.
• Excellent analytical skills, enabling comprehension and development of complex business and technical issues, topics, and plans.
• Able to distill widely variant feedback into root cause issues and provide actionable feedback to other stakeholders.
• Ability to multi-task.
• Balance short-term and long-term goals.
• Able to coach and mentor a broad array of startups.
• An assertive personality that can manage multiple project teams.
• Strong interpersonal and networking skills, a connector, with a genuine interest in supporting the success of others.
• Able to influence in a highly matrixed and rapidly changing environment.
• Results-driven, initiative-taker, proactive, and resilient.
• Diplomat with excellent abilities to motivate people.
• Highly meticulous, organized, pragmatic, curious, motivated, and positive.
• Understanding of what makes successful businesses.