Job Offer: Founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Sport & Entertainment Infrastructure Origination in Africa

January 19, 2026

African Collaborations Group (ACG)

African Collaborations Group (ACG)

Download Document: https://apo-opa.co/4r0UjBV

Location: Flexible (Africa or Europe, with frequent travel)
Employment Type: Full-time
Start Date: Q1 2026

ABOUT THE ROLE

African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGAfrica.com), a strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa, is recruiting a Founding Chief Executive Officer.

ACG has recently been granted an Exclusive Mandate by a major African country to originate, structure, coordinate, and advance an innovative sport and entertainment district, from early concept through feasibility and towards bankability.

This is a rare opportunity to lead a first-of-its-kind, continent-scale initiative at the intersection of infrastructure development, urban regeneration, sport, youth employment, and long-term economic impact.

ABOUT AFRICAN COLLABORATIONS GROUP (ACG)

African Collaborations Group (ACG) is a strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on industrializing sport in Africa through bankable sport and entertainment infrastructure ecosystems. We convene the full stakeholder “table” — including government and PPP authorities, DFIs, private investors, developers, operators, designers, academics, and specialist legal and commercial advisers — to move projects from concept to feasibility and towards bankability with disciplined governance and measurable impact.

ACG’s flagship initiative, Victory District™, is a co-creation framework for sport and entertainment districts designed for year‑round utilisation, diversified revenues, sustainable operations, and strong social and economic outcomes.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Founding CEO will lead ACG’s flagship Victory District™ proof-of-concept from mandate-driven mobilisation and feasibility through to bankability and financial close, while establishing the governance, operating cadence and stakeholder alignment required for successful delivery. A central part of the role is to architect, secure and institutionalise ACG’s commercial model and income architecture for the flagship project—ensuring it is coherent, defensible and fully embedded in the feasibility and transaction pathway (rather than treated as an afterthought). The CEO will build the platform, playbook and credibility needed to scale ACG into a repeatable, continent-wide sport infrastructure origination engine.

ROLE SUMMARY

The Founding CEO will be responsible for:

Leading the execution of the first Victory District™ project from feasibility through to bankability and financial close, and ensuring an orderly transition into delivery.
Coordinating a high-calibre international consortium of advisers and delivery partners under a disciplined governance and reporting cadence.
Managing government and DFI relationships at senior, institutional level, and maintaining trust, momentum and alignment.
Architecting and securing ACG’s commercial model and income architecture for the flagship project, ensuring it is contractually documented, bankable, and embedded in the feasibility and transaction pathway.
Driving commercial structuring, SPV preparation and multi-stakeholder alignment across public and private stakeholders.
Building ACG into Africa’s leading sport infrastructure origination and development platform, with a scalable pipeline and repeatable playbook.

This role is suited to a senior infrastructure executive with strong project origination experience across PPPs, DFIs and/or sovereign development, ready to step into a founding, continent-scale leadership mandate.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership

Lead the full development cycle of Victory District™ (concept → feasibility → bankability pathway/PPP → SPV → financial close), and oversee the handover into delivery.
Define ACG’s long-term strategy, platform positioning, project pipeline and expansion across African markets.
Establish and run a disciplined operating cadence (workplan delivery, steering committee rhythm, reporting, risk and decision logs).

Government&Institutional Engagement

Represent ACG with Ministers, Heads of State, DFIs and international organisations.
Lead negotiations and alignment on MoUs, PPP/concession frameworks and SPV arrangements with sovereign authorities and relevant regulators.
Maintain a credible institutional interface, ensuring stakeholder engagement is orderly, controlled and consistent with confidentiality obligations.

Consortium Management

Coordinate global partners, including financial, legal, design and technical advisers, ensuring clear scopes, accountability and delivery standards.
Ensure feasibility, PPP and transaction outputs meet DFI and investment-committee expectations (governance, due diligence readiness, auditability and transparency).
Manage performance of partners and maintain ACG’s authority within the consortium governance framework.

Commercial&Financial Structuring

Design and implement ACG’s revenue architecture for the flagship project, ensuring it is commercially coherent, defensible, and aligned with procurement/PPP realities.
Ensure ACG’s commercial entitlements are properly reflected in feasibility assumptions, SPV budgets and transaction documentation, and do not “disappear” during structuring.
Oversee investor engagement and readiness for financial close, including coordination of commercial terms, risk allocation and capital formation strategy.

REQUIRED PROFILE

An ideal candidate will bring:

15+ years’ experience in infrastructure finance, PPP development, project origination, DFI engagement or sovereign advisory.
Proven experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder infrastructure programmes in Africa or emerging markets.
Strong credibility and relationships across governments, DFIs and leading advisory or engineering firms.
Gravitas to operate at ministerial, institutional and board level, with strong negotiation and stakeholder leadership capability.
Demonstrated ability to align political, financial, technical and social dimensions simultaneously — and to translate ambition into bankable structures.
A genuine commitment to youth development, impact and Africa’s long-term transformation.
Experience in major stadium projects, urban regeneration, or large-scale mixed-use real estate is advantageous but not essential.

COMPENSATION&PLATFORM VALUE

This is a founder-level CEO opportunity, not a conventional corporate appointment.

The package includes:

A lean fixed base, reflecting the early-stage, high-impact nature of the platform
Significant long-term upside through participation in revenue streams generated by the first Victory District™
Exceptional visibility, reputation building, and long-term career positioning as a champion of the industrialisation of sport in Africa, supported by APO Group’s global communications and media platform

Through APO Group, we guarantee: