Sector practice head — Consumer & Retail (Australia) · CFO

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Consumer, Retail & FMCG 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 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: Finding leaders who can balance brand equity building (long-term) with performance marketing ROI (short-term) — the most common tension in modern FMCG leadership
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Australia with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, India, Continental Europe.
• Organisation stage: Digital and data maturity uneven across business lines — quick wins exist beside multi-year platform investments.
• Stakeholders: Expect dense matrix: global product houses, regional P&L owners, shared services, and internal audit all pull on the same calendar.
• Secondary lens: Leading rural penetration strategies while simultaneously building premium urban propositions — requiring leaders who can manage both ends of the demand pyramid

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Forecast integrity: Rebuild credibility of the rolling forecast — bridge gaps between FP&A, business units, and capital planning.
2. Capital allocation: Lead investment committee analytics; enforce hurdle rates and post-investment reviews.
3. Liquidity & funding: Stress-test funding plans; tighten working capital levers and covenant headroom narratives.
4. Controllership: Upgrade close, reporting, and internal controls where integration or growth created gaps.
5. Investor / lender interface: Own the numbers story with banks, rating agencies, or PE lenders — calm, conservative, accurate.
6. Transformation economics: Partner with COO / CIO on productivity programmes with clear ROI and tracking.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Own external reporting narrative, lender covenants, and rating / investor conversations as delegated.
• Lead FP&A, controllership, tax, and treasury with clear accountability and talent depth.
• Partner with business units on pricing, deal economics, and post-merger synergy realisation.
• Ensure internal controls and audit findings are remediated with sustainable fixes.
• Challenge growth plans that lack capital discipline or credible downside cases.

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.
• Finance leadership: Controllership-quality foundations plus credible FP&A and external stakeholder experience.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Australia with regular engagement across Singapore, India.

Team & culture

The organisation runs hot — ambitious targets and thin buffers. You need to channel energy into sustainable rhythms: predictable planning, honest risk surfacing, and recovery time for teams after major pushes.

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 CFO compensation for Consumer, Retail & FMCG 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 Consumer, Retail & FMCG and Australia. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: consumer-retail-fmcg · CFO · Australia · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors