Regional Managing Director — China · PE & VC

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Private Equity & Venture Capital on a senior CHRO leadership mandate anchored in China. The remit explicitly spans Singapore, Continental Europe, Africa.

This is a country CEO / MD-class mandate with board- and headquarters-facing accountability for strategy execution, regulatory relationships, and brand in-market.

The brief rewards leaders who can translate group strategy into market wins without burning the organisation on vanity initiatives.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Value creation initiative leadership — identifying operating leaders who can execute specific EBITDA improvement, revenue growth, or digital transformation programmes within portfolio companies
• Geographic spine: Primary hub China with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, Continental Europe, Africa.
• 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: Finding CEOs who can operate in PE governance environments — delivering against board-imposed KPIs and investor reporting requirements while maintaining operational team motivation

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Leadership pipeline: Build succession depth for critical roles; reduce key-person risk in revenue and operations.
2. Performance culture: Reset standards, feedback, and consequences — especially for the leadership population.
3. Rewards alignment: Tie incentive design to strategy; simplify schemes that accumulated complexity over years.
4. Talent acquisition: Fix hiring velocity and quality in scarce skill areas; partner with business on workforce planning.
5. Employee experience: Address engagement drivers linked to retention — career paths, manager capability, hybrid ways of working.
6. HR operating model: Clarify HRBP, centres of excellence, and shared services — reduce overlap and hand-off friction.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Set talent strategy for critical roles; chair succession and calibration processes with the CEO.
• Modernise HR operating model — clarity between HRBP, COE, and shared services.
• Partner with CFO on workforce cost, productivity, and location strategy.
• Lead executive hiring for direct reports and key-2 roles with diverse slates.
• Ensure ER / IR stability during restructuring or automation programmes.

Leadership profile

• People leadership: Experience resetting leadership standards and succession in matrix or multi-country settings.
• 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.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from China with regular engagement across Singapore, Continental Europe.

Team & culture

Inclusion and psychological safety are not separate programmes — they are prerequisites for honest debate on strategy and risk. Model curiosity, direct feedback, and consequences for conduct lapses.

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

Expect substantial travel — customer, hub, and owner meetings. Specific cadence discussed with shortlisted candidates.

Compensation

Market-aligned CHRO remuneration in Private Equity & Venture Capital 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 Private Equity & Venture Capital and China. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: private-equity-venture-capital · CHRO · China · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors