The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is the voice of private capital in the UK.  We are the industry body and public policy advocate for the private equity and venture capital industry in the UK. We have been acting on behalf of this community for almost 40 years, enabling it to uphold its vision and achieve its goals, as it has moved from a niche part of the investment community to being a mainstream part of the wider economy. We actively represent this diverse community of long-term investors enabling them to speak with one clear and consistent voice to wider society, including the Government, media and MPs.

The BVCA engages with and supports the private capital community, connecting institutional investors, fund managers, portfolio companies, advisers and service providers. Our membership comprises more than 600 firms, including over 250 private equity and venture capital businesses, over 100 institutional investors and more than 200 professional services firms. Our role is to be the unrivalled forum where the industry gathers to network, learn and address a wide range of issues; of equal importance, we represent the industry to key stakeholders in government, Parliament, the media and elsewhere through the advocacy delivered by our policy and external affairs departments.

Our members are active long-term investors who engage with their portfolio companies so that they grow and achieve their long-term ambitions – beyond the returns to investors (which typically out-perform the public markets), this also creates value for the country, economically and socially. Over 2.2 million jobs in the UK are backed by private equity and venture capital – many of these are the jobs of the future in high-growth sectors like biotech, software and clean energy, but equally important are those in more established parts of the economy where private capital galvanises the competitiveness and productivity of the companies they invest in. For the UK as a whole, the industry helps to attract investment and talent from around the world to the UK.

Description

This is a newly created role that will give a keen policy professional the opportunity to develop knowledge and experience of the venture capital industry.  Responsible for co-ordinating engagement with BVCA Venture Capital (VC) members and working across teams to build membership value for venture capital firms, to ensure effective representation. You will report directly to Head of VC, with responsibilities to the membership team, including commercial targets (member recruitment) as part of KPIs, and the Policy and External Affairs teams in particular. This is an Ideal entry level role for a recent graduate or someone early in their career looking to learn more about VC and engage with this industry that is crucial to the UK economy.  This role will offer you the opportunity to build on and enhance your skills in the following areas:

• Working with the Head of VC, articulate and communicate the value of membership to potential BVCA members and be proactive in recruiting new members.
• Working with the Head of VC and the membership team, maintain records of VC member engagement, and potential members.
• Acting as key point of contact for the Venture Capital Forum and other BVCA VC related forums to ensure that these meetings focus on priority areas and help to shape BVCA engagement with policy makers on behalf of VC firms.
• Supporting Head of VC on areas related to engaging with signatories to the Investment Compact for Venture Capital and Growth Equity, working closely with colleagues leading on pensions investment policy work.
• Involvement in projects related to VC which may include, among others:
• Supporting and developing understanding on policy areas that particularly relate to VC (e.g. fund formation, regulatory issues) or portfolio companies (e.g. deals, technology policy)
• Taking forward stakeholder engagement (e.g. organise, host and minute VC roundtables) on specific policy or industry topics
• Contributing to BVCA policy communications and publications.
• Drafting and coordinating content for BVCA publications, including the weekly newsletter and third party publications.
• Taking ownership of VC related content on webpages, ensuring content is relevant, up to date and engaging.

Requirements

You will have demonstrable experience in the following areas:

•       Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills with a keen attention to detail.

•       Interest in policy and VC developments with ability to understand industry “jargon” and learn new concepts.

•       Confident user of tools including CRM – MS dynamics would be preferred but not essential

•       Professional email and telephone manner.

•       Proficiency in the use of MS Office including Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

•       Good written skills and confident speaker.

•        Strong communication skills: ability to summarise issues clearly, and deliver what might sometimes be complex information to different types of people, with different interests and expertise.

•        Comfortable working at pace at times and being able to be flexible in your approach – there may be times where you work on different topics to support others in the BVCA for example when collaborating on our weekly member newsletter, or supporting our External Affairs team on communicating our policy position externally.

Benefits

Benefits 

• Discretionary Bonus 

• 10% non-contributory pension 

• Private Medical Insurance after successful completion of the probation period 

• Health Cash Plan after successful completion of the probation period 

• Life Assurance 

• Income Protection 

• Group Critical Illness 

• Mobile phone subsidy  

• 25 days annual leave (not including Bank Holidays) 

• Birthday off