Head of Banking — Wealth & Affluent (Australia) · CFO mandate

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance on a senior CFO leadership mandate anchored in Australia. The remit explicitly spans Singapore, India, Continental Europe.

This is a sector or practice-head mandate combining deep domain credibility with commercial ownership of a vertical P&L or global practice line.

You will be measured on outcomes that compound: talent depth, customer trust, and a balance sheet that can flex through cycles.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Building digital and technology leadership capability in institutions with legacy culture — finding leaders who can bridge the old and the new
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Australia with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, India, Continental Europe.
• Organisation stage: Customer concentration in a handful of strategic accounts shapes both opportunity and reputational risk.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Attracting and retaining top talent at a time when fintech companies and global banks offer significantly more competitive compensation

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Cash culture: Make cash conversion a leadership KPI, not a finance-only metric; align incentives accordingly.
2. Pricing governance: Install guardrails on discounting and contract terms that erode lifetime margin.
3. Long-range planning: Replace static LRP with scenarios owners can stress — rates, FX, volume, and regulatory shocks.
4. Shared services chargeback: Improve transparency so business units see true cost-to-serve and behave accordingly.
5. Finance talent mix: Blend operators who have lived in P&Ls with technical specialists (tax, treasury, systems).
6. Ethics & conduct: Ensure incentives and targets do not invite shortcuts — partner with compliance on early warnings.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Build finance business partnering that GMs trust as thought partners, not scorekeepers only.
• Sponsor digital finance roadmap — close, planning, and management reporting on modern platforms.
• Co-own working capital programme with COO and sales — DSO, DPO, inventory as appropriate.
• Lead finance integration on acquisitions with clear Day-1 / Day-100 milestones.
• Align incentive design with cash and return metrics, not only accounting profit.

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.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Capital discipline: Examples of improving forecast accuracy, returns, or balance-sheet resilience in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Australia with regular engagement across Singapore, India.

Team & culture

Expect some fatigue from prior change programmes. Your success depends on simpler priorities, fewer initiatives, and leaders who model accountability. Culture is how decisions get made when spreadsheets disagree — you set that tone.

Success measures (examples)

• Growth quality: Mix of recurring revenue, new logos, and cross-sell — not volume for its own sake.
• Productivity: Unit cost, automation savings, or throughput improvements with audited baselines.
• Customer: NPS / CSAT where tracked; contract renewals; reference-ability in strategic accounts.
• Franchise: Clean compliance record; reputation stability in industry and government forums.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Listening tour — customers, regulators (as appropriate), top team 1:1s, and unfiltered view of numbers; pause major reorganisation.
• Days 30–60: Publish a short memo on priorities, non-goals, and decision rights; align executive committee on three enterprise bets.
• Days 60–90: Lock operating cadence; fill or upgrade one to two critical seats; deliver one visible win (customer, cost, or culture).
• Commission a pragmatic view of data, cyber, and automation posture; sponsor one bounded pilot with ROI hypothesis.
• Establish escalation discipline with matrix partners — fewer meetings, clearer decision logs.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: CEO or regional president, CFO, risk / legal, CHRO, CIO or CDO, business GMs, internal audit.
• External: Strategic accounts, channel partners, industry associations, regulators (where material).
• Owners: PE operating partners, promoter office, or public investors — pace and clarity matter as much as vision.

Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

Compensation

Market-aligned CFO remuneration in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance with performance linkage; sign-on and relocation considered for exceptional fits.

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 Banking, Financial Services & Insurance and Australia. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: banking-financial-services · CFO · Australia · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors