Chief-of-staff to regional chair (CIO calibre) — Consumer & Retail · Australia

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Consumer, Retail & FMCG on a senior CIO leadership mandate anchored in Australia. The remit explicitly spans Canada, Middle East, Singapore.

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

You inherit teams that are capable but often misaligned on priorities; your job is to simplify the story and the scorecard.

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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 Canada, Middle East, Singapore.
• 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

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The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Core systems: Stabilise ERP / core banking / policy admin (as relevant) — reduce outages and major incident frequency.
2. Roadmap governance: Align business cases to enterprise priorities; stop pet projects that drain scarce capacity.
3. Cyber posture: Partner with CISO on identity, segmentation, and third-party risk — especially for critical vendors.
4. Business partnership: Embed IT leaders into P&L forums with clear service levels and joint accountability.
5. Cloud & infrastructure: Right-size hosting strategy; improve disaster recovery and scalability where growth strains capacity.
6. Sourcing: Rationalise SI relationships; improve contract discipline and outcome-based metrics.

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Responsibilities (representative)

• Own IT service delivery, run cost, and major business system programmes.
• Partner with business on digital initiatives — clear roles vs. product/engineering where split.
• Lead infrastructure, cloud, and workplace technology strategy.
• Co-own cyber resilience with CISO; prioritise by business criticality.
• Rationalise application portfolio — retire, replace, or integrate duplicates.

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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.
• Business systems: Large programme delivery — ERP, core platforms, or digital workplace at scale.
• 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 Canada, Middle East.

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Team & culture

You inherit a mixed-tenure team — pockets of excellence beside roles that need upgrade. The mandate is to raise the bar without demoralising the organisation: clear standards, fair process, and visible wins that prove the new pace is achievable.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Travel & mobility

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

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Compensation

Competitive CIO compensation for Consumer, Retail & FMCG leadership: cash, incentive, benefits, and potential equity or carry (case-dependent). Discussed with finalists only.

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Application process

Gladwin International is managing this search confidentially. Shortlisted candidates will engage in structured conversations with the firm’s partners before client introduction. Please apply through the careers portal with a concise note on why this geography, sector, and remit fit your trajectory.

We review every submission personally; unsolicited outreach to the end client is discouraged and may disqualify candidacy.

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