Multi-geography CDO — Media & Entertainment (primary anchor Continental Europe)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Media, Entertainment & Sports 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 a mandate where credibility is earned in rooms with customers and regulators, not only in headquarters workshops.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Regulation and content moderation — the evolving digital media regulation landscape (IT rules, OTT content guidelines) requires leaders with strong legal, regulatory, and public affairs capability
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Continental Europe with explicit corridor responsibility across Malaysia.
• Organisation stage: ESG and conduct expectations from owners and regulators are now hard constraints on how growth is pursued.
• Stakeholders: Owners may include PE operating partners, a promoter family office, or public-market investors — each with different tempo and KPIs.
• Secondary lens: Monetisation in a low-ARPU market — India's media companies must find creative ways to generate revenue from users who resist paying for content, requiring innovative commercial leadership

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Executive dashboards: Replace vanity metrics with a tight set of KPIs the CEO and CFO trust.
2. Customer data: Unify identity and consent where fragmentation hurts personalisation or compliance.
3. Operational analytics: Use data to improve unit economics in operations — yield, utilisation, leakage.
4. Partnership with IT: Clarify split between CDO-owned capabilities and CIO-owned platforms.
5. Regulatory reporting: Where applicable, reduce manual reconciliation through better lineage and controls.
6. Talent: Hire leaders who can translate statistical insight into executive decisions — not only build models.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Reduce regulatory and audit pain on data lineage, privacy, and retention.
• Monetise or operationalise data assets where ethically and legally sound.
• Hire and retain data science and engineering talent in competitive markets.
• Align metrics definitions across finance, operations, and commercial teams.
• Lead MDM and reference data programmes where fragmentation blocks decisions.

Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Trusted metrics: Examples where data changed capital or operating decisions in Media, Entertainment & Sports.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Continental Europe with regular engagement across Malaysia.

Team & culture

You inherit a mixed-tenure team — pockets of excellence beside roles that need upgrade. The mandate is to raise the bar without demoralising the organisation: clear standards, fair process, and visible wins that prove the new pace is achievable.

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

Travel weighted to priority markets and quarterly global or regional forums; flexibility for crisis windows.

Compensation

Package aligned to CDO benchmarks in Media, Entertainment & Sports — 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 Media, Entertainment & Sports and Continental Europe. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: media-entertainment · CDO · Continental Europe · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors