Ag-Food Business Development Director, GlobalSTL, an initiative of BioSTL

GlobalSTL, an initiative of BioSTL, is seeking qualified candidates to join our team and help us achieve our mission of promoting economic growth and regional prosperity. GlobalSTL attracts to St. Louis the U.S. presence of innovative, high-growth companies from around the world. We do this by creating strategic connections to the buying power of our region, which includes St. Louis', Missouri’s and the Midwest's ag-food ecosystem (corporations, growers/producers, ag-food commodity groups, research institutions, investors, and incubators), resulting in customers and partnerships that advance the business plan of the global company that locates its U.S. presence in St. Louis. Leveraging St. Louis’ regional strengths in Ag-Food, GlobalSTL has built relationships with the ag-food ecosystem including, EAGIC, a unique direct innovation sourcing program with Midwest growers/producers. GlobalSTL is seeking high potential candidates to leverage, build, and lead GlobalSTL’s high performing Ag-Food Business Development program to the next level.

BioSTL, is a privately-funded non-profit organization transforming St. Louis bioscience and innovation economy. BioSTL has organized business, university, and philanthropic leaders around a set of deliberate strategies that capitalize on St. Louis’ innovation strengths, especially in medical and plant sciences. In addition to attracting the U.S. presence of international companies through our GlobalSTL initiative, other BioSTL focus areas include: building and investing in startups through our venture development arm, BioGenerator; improving access to investment capital; ensuring appropriate physical infrastructure; promoting science- and innovation-friendly public policy; fostering an inclusive entrepreneurial talent pool; and building global awareness of St. Louis’ strengths.

BioSTL believes its success is of vital importance to the future growth and prosperity of the St. Louis region and Missouri, and seeks committed individuals who share this vision, who desire to make a difference, and who want to be part of a transformative organization. We are seeking individuals who demonstrate the ability to coordinate and execute key elements of BioSTL’s global company attraction strategies that will enrich the St. Louis innovation ecosystem with cutting edge technology, talent and high-quality jobs.

Job Responsibilities:

Primarily, under the direction of GlobalSTL Lead, this position, utilizing your business development, strategy development, and program management experience, will own the following responsibilities:

• Manage comprehensively the administration of the GlobalSTL program and team to identify, recruit and grow high growth global (international and US companies) to St. Louis in the ag-food domain
  • Grow the scale and impact of the business development program between companies being recruited and the St. Louis', Missouri’s and Midwest Ag-Food ecosystem
  • Increase the strategic impact that GlobalSTL delivers in terms of business value and competitive advantage to our region’s ag-food ecosystem making GlobalSTL an indispensable partner in operationalizing their strategies
  • Build EAGIC into a highly successful program for growers/producers to source and scale innovation, for global innovators seeking to secure grower access by changing the trust paradigm between innovators and growers and by improving the investment thesis for investing in ag-food innovation
  • Increase the scale of the buying power magnet by recruiting more ag-food organizations in the Midwest to our innovation sourcing platform
  • Increase the economic impact resulting from the recruitment of companies and their business impact on STL organizations by building a talent pipeline ready to be hired by the recruited companies
  • Improve the quality of life in our region through the deployment of the innovations originating from recruited companies
  • Increase the scale of our global network of relationships supporting the GlobalSTL innovation sourcing platform, bringing online new partners in more countries (including US) while strengthening existing partnerships and relationships (incubators, VCs, innovation programs/hubs, research-university tech transfer, government export orgs., etc.) resulting in leading ag-food innovation pipeline and building the brand of GlobalSTL as top business development partner for ag-food innovators, globally
  • Grow the revenue and sustainability of the GlobalSTL program through sponsorships, grants, and new models for monetizing value provided to regional strategic partners and innovators
  • Recruit, mentor, and develop top ag-food innovation business development team
  • Build and manage GlobalSTL Ag-Food Business Development program outlined above, in partnership with GlobalSTL Programs Manager, by:
    • Developing, capturing and reporting on key programmatic metrics and outcomes using Salesforce and other tools
    • Creating and leading specific project plan and outcomes
    • Developing high quality marketing/branding all-channel content in partnership with Marketing/Communications Director
    • Maintaining database of all contacts and communication between GlobalSTL partners and international entities to manage exponentially growing relationship network
• In an active role, work closely with GlobalSTL and broader BioSTL team, in multiple capacities including:
  • Organizing high quality visits to St. Louis of individual or delegations of international companies targeted for attraction to connect with local corporations, research collaborators, investors, and other St. Louis and regional partners of interest to the international companies
  • Coordinating and managing GlobalSTL sponsored international travel and events, including delegations of St. Louis ecosystem partners to countries relevant to GlobalSTL as sources of company attraction and/or for business development opportunities for St. Louis companies
• Continue to improve GlobalSTL programs and approaches through learning from U.S. and international success models, new ideas and applying continuous measurement and improvement approach.

Expected Outcomes:

• Increased number of ag-food innovators engaging (pilots and scaled implementations) with our region’s ag-food buying power/ecosystem
• Increased scale/size of our region’s ag-food innovation buying power/ecosystem by growth in the number of Midwest ag-food organizations in our innovation partnering network
• Increased number of ag-food innovators establishing and growing a physical presence in St. Louis
• Increased growers, crop advisors on the EAGIC platform and number of innovations piloted and scaled
• EAGIC becomes a nationally-recognized model for sourcing, deploying, and scaling grower-centric innovation through unique trust-based, collaboration between growers, innovators, researchers/evaluators, and farming communities
• Improved domestic and international brand of GlobalSTL as the go-to organization for ag-food innovators wanting to access Midwest buying power and ecosystem
• New jobs created and capital invested in the St. Louis region by GlobalSTL sourced and local ag-food companies
• Growth in revenue and sustainability of the GlobalSTL program through sponsorships, grants, and new models for monetizing value provided to regional strategic partners and innovators
• Establish GlobalSTL as the strategic economic development initiative for our region by local, national, and international entities
• Increased awareness among global innovators of St. Louis as the top ag-food innovation hub in the US

Qualifications/Experience:

• Deep understanding of the structure and strategic & innovation priorities of the US ag-food industry and the various business models for deploying innovation/value creation & capture across the US ag-food ecosystem
• Demonstrated track record of selling innovative/disruptive products/services in complex ag-food industry with P&L responsibility
• Business development in a B2B setting and preferably in international context – demonstrated passion for international business, people and culture; willingness to travel
• Experience working for both corporates and startups – important to understand the differing perspectives/cultures/processes/strengths/weaknesses and be able to speak both "languages"
• Demonstrated track record of conducting deep diligence of ag-food innovation and establishing value proposition for US ag-food industry and ecosystem
• Previous leadership role with responsibility and accountability for the outcomes your team created
• Deeply committed to building inclusive, diverse team and organizational culture
• Highest personal integrity
• Experience communicating and working with executives leading to engagement of their organizations with your programs/initiatives
• Commitment to making St. Louis a great region for ag-food innovation and startups
• Undergraduate or Master’s degree, in business management or agricultural/food/bio sciencescare

Skills:  

• Ability to mentor, develop and recruit and lead strong, diverse, high-performing teams
• Culture of accountability (see it, own it, solve it, do it) and excellence
• Excellent listening, written, and oral communication skills: with senior executives of diverse backgrounds (corporations, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers and governmental agencies in global setting)
• Ability to excel in a team setting (matrix reporting structure) as well as independent assignments
• Life-long learning mindset – constantly asking for feedback and ways you can improve
• Can adapt to shifting priorities, demands and timelines promptly and efficiently
• Ability to dissect and understand complex business issues; independent analytical thinking
• Ability to see the big picture and manage the minutia
• Competent with various current business productivity, collaboration tools and programs

Application:

Please submit applications via the online form below. Confidential inquiries may be made to Katy Dowd at kdowd@biostl.org. Please note that preferential consideration will be given to candidates residing in the St. Louis region. 

Full vaccination status against Covid is required for employment. Exemptions may be granted for medical contraindications and for sincerely held religious beliefs. Exemption requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

For more information, visit www.biostl.org and www.globalstl.org.