Executive Director

About Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)

The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is a global, not for profit, multi stakeholder alliance dedicated to transforming the rice sector to make it more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive. Established in 2011 and originally co convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), SRP today brings together over 100 members from the public sector, private sector, research organisations, civil society, and financial institutions.

At its core, SRP’s mission is to improve the sustainability of rice production worldwide by addressing both environmental and socio-economic challenges. Rice is a staple food for more than half of the global population, yet its cultivation is associated with significant environmental impacts—such as high water use and greenhouse gas emissions—and many smallholder farmers face economic challenges and climate-related risks. In response, SRP works to promote a set of farm-based practices that are proven to deliver positive outcomes in, productivity, resource efficiency and climate resilience, complemented by an assurance process for the rice supply chain.

The organisation focuses on three primary objectives: improving smallholder livelihoods, reducing the environmental and climate footprint of rice production, and ensuring a reliable supply of rice produced to the SRP standards to meet growing global demand. To achieve these aims, SRP develops and promotes practical tools such as sustainability standards, performance indicators, and assurance schemes that enable farmers and companies to adopt and verify sustainable practices.

A key feature of SRP’s approach is its emphasis on collaboration across the value chain—from farmers and governments to retailers and consumers. By linking research, policy, production, and markets, SRP encourages large-scale adoption of best practices and supports voluntary market transformation. Its vision, often summarised as “SRP Rice: For People & Planet” reflects a commitment to delivering high quality, nutritious rice while improving farmer livelihoods and protecting the environment.

The Opportunity

The Sustainable Rice Platform is seeking an Executive Director to lead the organisation through its next phase, building on the work already done to create a robust standard with proven impact, to take this to scale. The new CEO will be, purpose driven, able to engage across sectors, building strong partnerships to drive impact at scale for SRP’s mission. They will take over from an Interim Executive Director who has created a strong foundation from which the new Executive Director will lead the organisation, ensuring a stable and sustainable financial platform from which SRP can focus on new partnerships and future growth. They will be supported in this by a diverse team of people and external partners who are committed to SRP values, its success and its impact.

The Executive Director will be responsible for setting and executing the overall strategy, strengthening execution and operational excellence, supporting members, the board and extending the organisation’s strategic partnerships. The role requires an inspiring leader who can motivate teams, set and execute strategy that delivers both outcomes and financial results, and translate innovation and opportunity into results.

Leadership and Management

• Set and communicate a clear long-term vision and strategy for SRP to deliver impact.
• Provide strategic direction and take responsibility for key decisions in line with the organisation’s objectives and values.
• Inspire, lead, and develop a high performing, values driven workforce. Ensure the organisation has the right mix of skills and experience to deliver its objectives.
• Lead the management team, ensuring effective performance management of key roles.
• Represent SRP with credibility and influence in key forums and with investors, and strategic partners.
• Advocate for and model the organisation’s values by demonstrating the effectiveness of a multi-stakeholder approach that promotes sustainability and social responsibility, at scale.

Entity, Finance & Risk Management

• Hold overall responsibility for P&L leadership, financial performance, and sustainability.
• Ensure that SRP has a viable business model that can underpin its strategy and objectives.
• Oversee annual budgeting, forecasting, and budget to actuals monitoring.
• Ensure SRP has sufficient and appropriate financial resources in place to deliver its objectives and to maintain operational independence.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate strategic, operational, financial, and regulatory risks.
• Lead crisis management planning and safeguard the organisation’s reputation and license to operate.
• Maintain a healthy and productive working relationship with the board.

Essential Qualities

• Established leadership career.
• Experience and knowledge of value chains, specifically around commodities.
• Experience of sustainability standards.
• Excellent business management skills.
• Experience of cross sector partnership working (e.g. Public, Private and Third Sector).
• Excellent people management skills.
• Excellent resource mobilisation skills.
• The ability to cultivate an inclusive working culture.
• Credibility, diplomacy, and confidence to represent SRP with senior external stakeholders.
• Growth oriented mindset with the ability to identify, test, and scale business models.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and a demonstrated commitment to integrity and cross-cultural respect.

Desirable Qualities

• Experience of working within commodity value chains.
• Experience of sustainable sourcing.
• Experience of working at an organisational leadership level in the sustainability field.

Candidate Profile

The SRP board are looking for an established leader who can carry the organisation forward to future growth and impact. They should be well versed in organisational leadership and be a culturally attuned, people focused manager with a track record of senior level responsibility.

The individual does not need to be a specialist in the rice industry but will need to have a passion for sustainability and experience in the agricultural/food sector will be valuable. They will need to understand value chains and sustainability standards and be able to navigate these effectively, understanding how to drive change through supply chains in similar circumstances. They will be able to evidence success in driving impact within their experience.

They will be effective at stakeholder engagement, experience in a member-based organization would be valuable and should be able to identify and deliver on growth opportunities for the organisation. They will have the diplomatic and engagement skills to easily build trust within the SRP platform of partners to become a unifying force. They will be charismatic and put effort into understanding the challenges partners face. The right individual will be trustworthy, have high integrity and transparency and be both responsive and able to adjust to a fast-changing environment. The individual will be a fast learner, used to directing complex portfolios and broad, diverse stakeholder groups. They will be flexible, a self-starter and keen to grow the influence of SRP and the scale of its impact. They need to demonstrate their ability to build and grow initiatives.

They will be an exceptional manager, able to foster happy, productive and highly engaged employees, deploying a servant style of leadership with high emotional intelligence. Working remotely, they will need to demonstrate experience of achieving results across geographies and cultures in a sensitive manner.

Key to the role will be the ability to navigate and communicate at the nexus between impact organisations and the private sector. The individual will need to understand how to market and create demand for SRP to increase market share. They will understand the challenges at all levels of the value chain that are involved in the implementation of and reporting against sustainability standards. They will be a skilled communicator and a good speaker, able to mobilise and inspire audiences and develop thought leadership positions. Critically they will know how to execute and maintain the trust and motivation of partners to drive toward expanded impact.

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