We're looking to appoint two new board members to ensure we have the skills, capacity and diversity to oversee the next phase of our development.
This advert provides a general overview of our planned recruitment and also seeks to provide information to individuals who do not fit neatly into the roles for which we target our adverts.
We seek individuals excited by the prospect of improving the lives of millions of vulnerable people in low- and middle-income countries through the use of novel data sources and high-quality data science. We are looking for individuals who can make important contributions to the organisation in coaching and leadership, business management and creating high-value partnerships.
Board members are expected to attend six board meetings per year, and to participate in the life of the organisation between board meetings, including advising the staff team and acting in an ambassadorial role for our organisation.
Our board meetings are mostly online and participation is remote, however we endeavour to have two full-day in-person board meetings per year. So far, these have been held in Europe but Board members can be located anywhere in the world.
About us
Flowminder is a Swedish operational, non-profit foundation with 30 staff across our three offices in Stockholm (Sweden), Southampton (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland), with team members in Africa and the Caribbean.
We seek to improve population well-being among vulnerable people in LMICs by providing high-value decision support through data science solutions in the development and humanitarian sectors. Flowminder uses new types of large-scale digital data sources, such as de-identified mobile operator data and satellite data, combined with traditional population surveys and robust data science to develop and implement solutions that can positively impact the lives of millions of people.
Flowminder was founded in 2012, building on pioneering work by Drs. Bengtsson, Lu and Tatem, to use de-identified mobile operator data to monitor and predict population displacement after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and to understand population mobility to assess malaria transmission dynamics between Zanzibar and the Tanzanian mainland in 2008.
We have since expanded to work with mobile operators and to support governments, intergovernmental and national organisations across a number of sectors and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. We have also developed several additional pioneering data products based on data sources other than mobile operator data: we’re currently scaling services to support placement of public services in LMICs.
We are active in a number of countries, including Haiti, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
We receive grants and provide consultancy services within our focus areas. Our largest donors and clients include the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Organisation of Migration, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), UK FCDO, Swiss FDFA and the World Bank. Our work has also been featured in media such as New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, CBS, Le Monde and many others.
Our work to engage with end users and to mobilise resources is spread across several teams with different geographic focus and topic area expertise. The engagement work is coordinated by the (non-board) Director of Strategic Partnerships, based in the UK. In many cases, our end users are governments in LMICs or intergovernmental organisations.
What we are looking for
We are looking to strengthen the Board to support the scaling of our impact through new partnerships with end-user organisations, mobile operators, and funders, as well as to expand the success of our commercial products and increase their value to end-users.
We are interested in applications from skillful individuals who can help us towards the above. We are especially interested in applications from individuals with the backgrounds below.
- Individuals with senior experience in development or humanitarian organisations, with good connections to both end-users and donors who can support business development, product and programme design. [Role filled]
- Individuals with very senior government or intergovernmental experience at the level of Minister, head of agency or similar in the development or humanitarian sectors and with active networks that can support our mission.
- Individuals with experience as CEO or in similar roles in tech-focused companies who can also advise on the efficient running of our business units, how to best prioritise the scaling of our work and how to improve the success of our existing and future products.
- Individuals with senior experience at mobile operators, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with a deep understanding of the needs and internal workings of mobile operators who are able to support the development of our business models and partnerships with operators, as well as supporting our managerial development. [Under recruitment. Advert out]
- Individuals with senior finance experience, having worked as CFOs or in similar positions, who can act as treasurer and guide our financial strategies and operations. [Role filled]
General attributes of all applicants
We seek the following attributes in all candidates:
- Commitment to the objectives of Flowminder
- Willingness to act as an ambassador for the organisation
- Willingness to fulfil the duties and standards of conduct required of a board member of a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on improving population wellbeing
- Understanding of equality and diversity issues
- Integrity and being able to share one's view, even when it is not shared by others on the board
- Ability to operate well as part of a team, nurturing the development and accomplishment of the board
Experience, knowledge and skills of value
You may have senior experience and highly valued skills while not fitting neatly into any of the four groups listed above. Below are other types of characteristics which may be very valuable to our board, especially if you have several of them.
Experience:
- Developing and implementing business models in organisations comparable to Flowminder
- Senior experience in fundraising and investment relations
- Worked on commercialisation, marketing, or impact generation of data
- Board experience, ideally at a charity or company of a similar size and sector to Flowminder.
- Expertise & knowledge:
- Expertise in supporting decision-making before/during/after and in preparation for sudden onset disasters or in the development of decision support products for governments.
- Expertise in large-scale data analysis in the development sector
- Expertise in data science in geographic or mobile operator data
- Strong knowledge of data governance, privacy, data security and other ethical issues related to data
- Financial management
Skills:
- Ability to understand and interrogate financial reports
- Strategic planning skills
- Risk management skills
- Analytical skills
- Management/project management.
Compensation
Compensation at a rate of USD 500 per full day work will be provided for board meetings and for attending and undertaking all the necessary prep work required before each meeting. Board meetings with preparation will typically take half to a full day of work, depending on the subject matter involved. Other work for the organisation by board members is generally not compensated for, and board members should be able to commit at least an average of one day per month to the life of the organisation.