Bangladesh: Chief Executive Officer for Surjer Hashi Group

OVERVIEW

Are you ready to build, lead, and grow the largest private primary care system in the developing world? Are you excited about applying best-practices from the commercial, for-profit world to build the first-of-its-kind, pro-poor social enterprise? Are you convinced that the development sector is in serious need for creative disruption? Then consider joining ThinkWell and be on the forefront of development innovation.

ThinkWell is not a traditional development organization. Rather, we are a creative health sector transformation platform that thrives on pushing boundaries and reconceiving possibilities. We work with private equity and venture capital investors, pharmaceutical companies, and large commercial enterprises to leverage resources for shared public value. At the same time, we have a deep understanding of the development arena, working as advisors to ministries of health across the globe and with nearly all major development agencies. Our bottom line is social impact, our approach is entrepreneurship.

We are hiring for a Chief Executive Officer to head up an exciting new venture under a five year USAID funded program in Bangladesh.

Background

Over the last two decades, USAID has supported the creation of Smiling Sun, the largest NGO network of maternal and child health clinics in the world. Through 388 clinics and over 10,000 satellite clinics, this network has grown to serve 38 million unique customers each year across all 64 districts in Bangladesh. The Smiling Sun brand has developed value in and of itself -- it is well-recognized across the country and respected as a premier provider of maternal and child health services in the Bangladesh. Despite these achievements, the Smiling Sun network remains unsustainable, hard to manage, and faces governance challenges.

ThinkWell anticipates funding to consolidate the current network of NGO-managed clinics into a sustainable accountable care organization. With a private-equity mindset, ThinkWell will consolidate the NGO clinics into a single, wholly-managed, privately run social enterprise**,** the Surjer Hashi Group (SHG). SHG’s mission is to be a financially viable enterprise while maintaining its pro-poor mandate. The SHG will combine aggressive revenue generation strategies while ensuring cost effective, quality services are delivered to a mix of poor and non-poor population.

Ultimately, this program will demonstrate to the world that the private sector can be an important partner in helping developing countries achieve universal health care, while showing private investors that investments into low-income health systems can be profitable. We are looking for a bold, dynamic, mission-oriented leader to serve as the CEO to launch the SHG enterprise.

Responsibilities

The CEO provides leadership, direction, and administration of all aspects of the Surger Hashi Group to ensure that the institution’s start up and operations are successful. S/he assures compliance with established objectives and the provision of quality and cost-effective healthcare services. His/her responsibilities include:

1 Lead the development and implementation of SHG business plan, defining the group strategy to:

‒ Diversify sources of revenue to reach profitability while providing coverage for the poor;

‒ Attract private investors with a pro-poor ethos to provide expansion capital to the Group;

‒ Standardize core operations including IT systems, accounting practices, clinical standards, and patient experience;

‒ Develop partnerships to add value for SHG customers, including insurance packages that include secondary care at partner facilities, referral systems to ensure continuum of care, and emergency transportation offerings.

2 In concert with Chief Financial Officer, oversee fiscal health and performance of the group.

3 Represent SHG at senior levels with national stakeholders, including the government of Bangladesh, local government officials, development partners, and others.

4 Ensure coordination across all partners of the project, and assume accountability for ThinkWell performance under the project.

5 Direct and supervise SHG activities in conjunction with executive team.

6 Ensure compliance with all regulatory agencies governing SHG.

7 Inform and advise SHG leadership, investors and donors regarding current trends, issues and activities in health care to facilitate policy-making.

8 Work with staff to provide internal controls protecting physical, financial, and human resources.

9 Promote a culture of mission-orientation, openness, and collaboration across SHG.

Qualifications

1 Irreverence towards traditional development practices and burning desire to make things happen is required;

2 Executive experience leading and growing in large commercial health systems;

3 Executive experience with private equity-led provider restructuring and consolidation highly desirable;

4 Intense drive to build a pro-poor social enterprise;

5 Medical degree and masters in business administration highly desirable;

6 Sufficient experience/confidence working with a range of funders, including private sector investors, development donors, Government of Bangladesh, and large commercial businesses;

7 Fluent command of English;

8 Willingness to live and work in Bangladesh for at least three years, preferably five.

Skills and Competencies

1 Understanding and ability to oversee core areas of provider restructuring and consolidation, including medical IT platforms (EMR, billing, MIS, etc.), growth strategy development and execution, customer experience, and internal cultural transformation;

2 Business acumen and savvy to drive growth for a pro-poor social enterprise;

3 Ability to thrive and navigate within Bangladeshi cultural context;

4 Strong negotiation skills;

5 Understanding of how to navigate relationships and advocate for bold ideas within complex environments such as USAID, the SHG Board, ministries of health, and large funding organizations;

6 Ability to represent ThinkWell’s and SHG’s expertise convincingly and credibly;

7 Ability to work in a high stress and constantly changing environment;

8 A combination of humility and confidence.

Applications must be submitted through our online job portal: https://jobs-thinkwell.icims.com/jobs l