Multi-geography CDO — Consumer & Retail (primary anchor Continental Europe)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Consumer, Retail & FMCG on a senior CDO leadership mandate anchored in Continental Europe. The remit explicitly spans Malaysia.

This is a country CEO / MD-class mandate with board- and headquarters-facing accountability for strategy execution, regulatory relationships, and brand in-market.

Expect to partner closely with technology and risk leaders — the enterprise strategy is increasingly inseparable from data and resilience.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Leading rural penetration strategies while simultaneously building premium urban propositions — requiring leaders who can manage both ends of the demand pyramid
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Continental Europe with explicit corridor responsibility across Malaysia.
• Organisation stage: Portfolio under review: non-core assets, JVs, and country footprints are actively questioned each planning cycle.
• Stakeholders: Stakeholders span board or regional executive committee, global functional heads, JV partners, and strategic account buyers.
• Secondary lens: Data and analytics leadership — embedding consumer insights, basket analytics, and digital attribution into commercial decision-making processes

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Data contracts: Agreements between producers and consumers — schemas, SLAs, and accountability for quality.
2. Feature store / reuse: Stop one-off features; encourage reusable signals for models and analytics.
3. Bias & fairness: Where models affect customers or employees, institute testing and monitoring appropriate to risk.
4. Self-service guardrails: Empower analysts without creating ungoverned copies of sensitive data.
5. Cost of data: Storage, compute, and licence discipline — treat data platforms like P&L lines.
6. External data: Evaluate third-party datasets for provenance, refresh, and compliance fit.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Own enterprise data strategy, governance, and quality accountability.
• Deliver analytics products with product owners and adoption metrics.
• Establish AI / ML governance appropriate to sector regulation.
• Partner with CIO on platforms and with business on domain ownership.
• Build data literacy programmes for executives and managers.

Leadership profile

• Data leadership: Governance plus delivery — not only strategy decks but shipped analytics outcomes.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Continental Europe with regular engagement across Malaysia.

Team & culture

Silos are real. Your job is to design forums and incentives so product, technology, risk, and commercial leaders solve problems together instead of optimising local KPIs.

Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

Travel & mobility

Role requires face-to-face presence in the primary hub with regular regional travel; remote-only not viable.

Compensation

Package aligned to CDO benchmarks in Consumer, Retail & FMCG — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

Application status

This mandate is no longer accepting new applications. The search progressed through Q4 2025 and closed for submissions in February 2026. We retain this posting for transparency on the type of leadership work we carry in Consumer, Retail & FMCG and Continental Europe. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: consumer-retail-fmcg · CDO · Continental Europe · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors