Multi-geography CHRO — Media & Entertainment · anchored Continental Europe

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Media, Entertainment & Sports on a senior CHRO leadership mandate anchored in Continental Europe. The remit explicitly spans India, Singapore, Australia.

This is a multi-geography leadership role requiring orchestration across time zones, matrix stakeholders, and often dual-reporting into global and regional lines.

The mandate fits a leader comfortable owning the narrative externally while upgrading how decisions are made internally.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: 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
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Continental Europe with explicit corridor responsibility across India, Singapore, Australia.
• 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: Sports commercialisation — IPL and emerging sports leagues need professional commercial, marketing, and operations leaders who can build sports businesses to global standards

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Transformation people plan: Align organisation design to strategy — spans, layers, and decision rights.
2. Change leadership: Equip executives to lead through restructuring, automation, or geographic shifts without burning trust.
3. Diversity & inclusion: Move from programmes to measurable outcomes in hiring, promotion, and succession data.
4. Industrial relations / employee relations: Stabilise hotspots; ensure policies match local law and company values.
5. Learning: Invest in leadership curricula tied to business priorities — not generic catalogues.
6. HR analytics: Give the CEO and CFO a clear view of workforce cost, productivity, and risk signals.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Upgrade manager capability — especially feedback, coaching, and performance management at scale.
• Simplify rewards; reduce exception culture that undermines internal equity.
• Own employee listening and action planning tied to retention drivers.
• Partner with legal on investigations, policies, and regulatory people topics.
• Build HR analytics that support board and audit committee oversight.

Leadership profile

• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Business partnership: HR seen as a strategic function, not only policy and service delivery.
• 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.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Continental Europe with regular engagement across India, Singapore.

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.
• Clarify RACI for cross-border deals, staffing, and pricing exceptions.

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

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

Compensation

Market-aligned CHRO remuneration in Media, Entertainment & Sports 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 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 · CHRO · Continental Europe · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors