China Country Platform Lead (CDO) — Hospitality

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Hospitality & Travel on a senior CDO leadership mandate anchored in China. The remit explicitly spans Canada, Africa, Continental Europe.

This is a P&L-owning regional leadership mandate with full accountability for revenue, margin, talent, and governance across the defined geography.

You inherit teams that are capable but often misaligned on priorities; your job is to simplify the story and the scorecard.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: General manager talent scarcity — qualified, experienced GMs who can manage large full-service hotels are in critically short supply across India
• Geographic spine: Primary hub China with explicit corridor responsibility across Canada, Africa, Continental Europe.
• Organisation stage: Post-integration operating model still settling — some processes are global templates, others are stubbornly local.
• Stakeholders: Expect dense matrix: global product houses, regional P&L owners, shared services, and internal audit all pull on the same calendar.
• Secondary lens: Revenue management sophistication — moving from intuition-based to data-driven dynamic pricing and revenue optimisation requires a new generation of commercial leaders

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Data strategy: Define authoritative data domains, ownership, and quality metrics tied to business decisions.
2. Analytics products: Ship a small set of high-use decision support products instead of broad BI sprawl.
3. AI governance: Establish model risk, privacy, and ethics guardrails appropriate to the sector.
4. Data platform: Modernise ingestion, catalog, and access patterns — reduce time-to-insight for analysts and operators.
5. Monetisation (where relevant): Explore compliant ways data creates customer or internal value without regulatory missteps.
6. Skills & culture: Build hybrid teams of domain, data science, and engineering talent with clear career paths.

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

• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• 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.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from China with regular engagement across Canada, Africa.

Team & culture

Inclusion and psychological safety are not separate programmes — they are prerequisites for honest debate on strategy and risk. Model curiosity, direct feedback, and consequences for conduct lapses.

Success measures (examples)

• Financial: Revenue and margin vs. plan; cash conversion; capital efficiency.
• Strategic: Share in priority segments; customer retention in anchor accounts; milestone delivery on transformation.
• People: Engagement trends; regrettable attrition in critical roles; diversity of succession slate.
• Risk: Audit and regulatory outcomes; conduct events; operational resilience metrics.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Shadow key customer journeys or operations — paper over slides where reality diverges.
• Days 30–60: Cut or pause low-value projects freeing capacity for strategic work.
• Days 60–90: Publish first integrated forecast or plan under your ownership — even if directional.
• Build trust with risk, legal, and audit through transparency — surprises erode licence to move fast.
• Pick one cultural signal (e.g. meeting hygiene, promotion criteria) and model it relentlessly.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Matrix of global product houses and local P&L; tension is normal — your role is to broker trade-offs with data.
• External: Customers who influence reference deals; government or industry bodies in regulated sectors.
• Capital providers: Banks, sponsors, or minority investors — each needs a slightly different narrative on risk.

Travel & mobility

Expect substantial travel — customer, hub, and owner meetings. Specific cadence discussed with shortlisted candidates.

Compensation

Competitive CDO compensation for Hospitality & Travel leadership: cash, incentive, benefits, and potential equity or carry (case-dependent). Discussed with finalists only.

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 Hospitality & Travel and China. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: hospitality-travel · CDO · China · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors