Montgomery County Green Bank
Position Description
Position: Chief Investment Officer
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
Status: Full-Time, Exempt
Location: Montgomery County, Maryland (Hybrid)
About the Montgomery County Green Bank
The Montgomery County Green Bank (''MCGB'') is a publicly chartered nonprofit green bank dedicated to accelerating investment in clean energy, energy efficiency, climate resilience, and sustainable infrastructure throughout Montgomery County, Maryland. MCGB's mission is to transform markets by deploying public, private, and philanthropic capital to overcome barriers to investment while delivering measurable environmental, economic, and community benefits. Since inception, MCGB has mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars of project investment through innovative financing structures and strategic partnerships.
As MCGB enters its second decade, the organization is transitioning from a start-up green bank to a mature climate finance institution focused on scale, diversification, resilience, and long-term financial sustainability.
Position Summary
The Chief Investment Officer (''CIO'') serves as the senior executive responsible for MCGB's investment platform and capital deployment strategies.
The CIO leads the development and execution of investment strategies that advance Montgomery County's climate goals while maintaining strong portfolio performance and institutional sustainability. The position oversees all aspects of transaction origination, structuring, approval, closing, product development, and investment-related partnerships. Beyond individual transactions, the CIO is responsible for building scalable financing programs, expanding private capital participation, developing innovative investment vehicles, and positioning MCGB as a national leader in climate finance and green banking.
The CIO serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and acts as a strategic advisor to the CEO and Board of Directors.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Lead the identification, development, and execution of MCGB's investments in alignment with organizational objectives and County priorities.
- Translate organizational goals and frameworks into actionable deployment plans, portfolio strategies, and capital allocation frameworks.
- Advise the CEO, Chief Credit Officer, and the Board regarding emerging market opportunities, risks, regulatory developments, and investment trends.
- Serve as a thought leader representing MCGB locally, regionally, and nationally.
- Support strategic planning and organizational growth initiatives.
Investment Platform Leadership
- Direct all investment activities from origination through financial close.
- Coordinate with the Chief Credit Officer on investment underwriting and other credit matters.
- Establish investment priorities across clean energy, energy efficiency, affordable housing, transportation electrification, community decarbonization, and climate adaptation and resilience.
- Oversee product creation, capital formation, interest rate guidelines, and investment approval processes.
- Lead internal investment review processes and prepare transactions for Investment Committee consideration.
- Ensure investment decisions balance mission impact, portfolio quality, and financial sustainability.
- Manage and report on pipeline development, loan closings, and progress toward achieving MCGB's impact goals.
- Work with the Investment Team to create high-quality investment memos that clearly describe the project, proposed loan terms, and impact.
Capital Formation and Capital Markets
- Lead the development of strategies supporting MCGB's long-term capital growth, including but not limited to balance sheet approaches, capital markets issuances, co-investing structures, philanthropic and grant funding, warehouse lines, and other structures.
- Strengthen and develop new partnerships with banks, CDFIs, impact investors, foundations, institutional investors, and public funding partners.
- Evaluate opportunities for securitization, loan sales, syndication, and other capital recycling strategies.
- Support the Chief Credit Officer and Finance Team in implementing portfolio administration, treasury, and liquidity management of new capital facilities.
Product Development and Market Innovation
- Lead the creation of scalable financing products and standardized investment programs that efficiently grow MCGB's impact.
- Oversee expansion of adaptation and resilience as a core vertical, including leading the execution of financing products that address extreme heat exposure, stormwater management, agricultural activities, and nature-based solutions.
- Develop financing solutions for emerging sectors that integrate resilience and decarbonization strategies across community infrastructure, affordable housing, and underserved markets.
- Establish repeatable investment platforms capable of generating long-term deployment and market transformation.
- Identify and evaluate opportunities for strategic ownership structures, special purpose vehicles, dedicated funds, and innovative financing vehicles that meaningfully align MCGB's position in the capital stack with desired impact outcomes.
Portfolio and Risk Management
- Support the Chief Credit Officer to maintain portfolio performance, credit quality, concentration management, and risk oversight of new transactions.
- Develop investment strategies that diversify exposures across sectors, products, geographies, and borrower types.
- Support the implementation of compliance with all lending policies, funding requirements, and reporting obligations.
Team Leadership and Organizational Development
- Lead and mentor MCGB's Investment Team personnel.
- Build a high-performing investment team grounded in collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Establish professional development pathways and succession planning.
- Promote cross-functional collaboration across all MCGB departments.
- Foster a culture of collegiality, innovation, and mission-driven performance.
External Relations
- Develop and maintain relationships with lenders, investors, consultants, community organizations, public agencies, and industry partners.
- Represent MCGB at conferences, industry forums, and stakeholder meetings.
- Support fundraising, grant development, legislative engagement, and strategic partnerships.
- Strengthen MCGB's reputation as a trusted and leading climate finance institution.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business Administration, Public Policy, Commercial Real Estate, or a related field.
- Minimum 12 years of progressively responsible experience in commercial banking, structured finance, project finance, impact investing, community development finance, real estate finance, climate finance, or related fields.
- Minimum 7 years of management experience leading investment professionals and multidisciplinary teams, including the creation and implementation of new financial products.
- Demonstrated experience originating, structuring, underwriting, and closing complex financing transactions.
- Strong financial modeling and credit analysis capabilities.
- Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills.
- Demonstrated ability to build partnerships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Preferred
- MBA, MPA, JD, CFA, or other advanced professional degree.
- Experience working with green banks, CDFIs, community development organizations, impact investment funds, infrastructure investors, or public finance institutions.
- Experience raising institutional capital or managing investment funds.
- Familiarity with climate resilience finance, energy transition finance, infrastructure finance, or sustainable investing.
- Experience serving before investment committees, boards of directors, or public bodies.
Desired Characteristics
- Preferred candidate qualities include strategic and systems-level thinking, strong commercial judgment, entrepreneurial leadership, intellectual curiosity, exceptional integrity, ability to balance mission and financial discipline, collaborative leadership style, comfort operating in a fast-growing and evolving organization, and a commitment to public purpose and community impact.
- MCGB has a strong preference for the CIO to be a Montgomery County, MD resident and/or maintain meaningful ties to the County.
- Performance in the CIO role will be based on the successful achievement of:
- Annual deployment and leverage objectives.
- Portfolio quality and risk management.
- Growth and diversification of capital sources.
- Development of scalable financing products.
- Expansion of climate resilience investments.
- Team leadership and staff development.
- Contribution to organizational sustainability and institutional maturity.
- Advancement of Montgomery County climate and community impact objectives.
Compensation
Compensation shall be commensurate with experience, qualifications, and market conditions, with an anticipated base salary range of $235,000 to $250,000. The position is also eligible for incentive compensation, as determined by the Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors, based on the successful advancement of the Green Bank's mission and strategic objectives, including capital deployment, portfolio performance, financial discipline, private capital mobilization, organizational leadership, and long-term institutional growth and sustainability.