Strategic CFO — Chemicals transformation & growth (USA)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Chemicals & Materials on a senior CFO leadership mandate anchored in USA. The remit explicitly spans Africa, Middle East, Continental Europe.

This is a strategic transformation mandate at CXO level — equal parts operating leadership, change orchestration, and investor / board narrative ownership.

The organisation is looking for pattern recognition: someone who has seen similar complexity before and knows which levers matter first.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Regulatory complexity — REACH (Europe), EPA (USA), BIS (India), and chemicals regulations across 40+ export markets require dedicated regulatory affairs leadership
• Geographic spine: Primary hub USA with explicit corridor responsibility across Africa, Middle East, 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: Sustainability transformation — bio-based, circular, and green chemistry are becoming competitive necessities; R&D and strategy leaders who can navigate this transition

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

• 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.
• Capital discipline: Examples of improving forecast accuracy, returns, or balance-sheet resilience in Chemicals & Materials.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from USA with regular engagement across Africa, Middle East.

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)

• 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

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

Compensation

Competitive CFO compensation for Chemicals & Materials 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 Chemicals & Materials and USA. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: chemicals-materials · CFO · USA · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors