Commercial & delivery excellence CMO — Hospitality (USA)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Hospitality & Travel on a senior CMO leadership mandate anchored in USA. The remit explicitly spans Malaysia, Australia, India.

This is a P&L-owning regional leadership mandate with full accountability for revenue, margin, talent, and governance across the defined geography.

The role suits an operator who treats integration, culture, and capital allocation as one system — not three separate programmes.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: General manager talent scarcity — qualified, experienced GMs who can manage large full-service hotels are in critically short supply across India
• Geographic spine: Primary hub USA with explicit corridor responsibility across Malaysia, Australia, India.
• Organisation stage: Working capital, liquidity, and funding mix are under scrutiny alongside headline revenue growth.
• Stakeholders: Stakeholders span board or regional executive committee, global functional heads, JV partners, and strategic account buyers.
• Secondary lens: Revenue management sophistication — moving from intuition-based to data-driven dynamic pricing and revenue optimisation requires a new generation of commercial leaders

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Category narrative: Reframe how the firm is discussed in the market — move from vendor to partner / platform where credible.
2. Account-based motion: Align marketing and key account teams on bespoke programmes for strategic buyers.
3. Lifecycle marketing: Reduce leakage post-pilot or post-sale — onboarding, adoption, and expansion storytelling.
4. Creative & brand governance: One source of truth for visual and verbal identity; cut off-brand exceptions.
5. Events & field: Rebalance physical and digital presence for ROI, not habit.
6. Privacy-first personalisation: Improve relevance within consent and regulatory constraints.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Own brand architecture, positioning, and major campaign investment decisions.
• Align marketing and sales on pipeline definitions, targets, and hand-offs.
• Sponsor customer research and segmentation used in S&OP and strategy conversations.
• Rationalise MarTech spend; enforce governance on data and consent.
• Lead executive communications and high-stakes external messaging as needed.

Leadership profile

• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Growth leadership: Demonstrated impact on pipeline, win rate, or brand strength in Hospitality & Travel.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from USA with regular engagement across Malaysia, Australia.

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.

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

Role requires face-to-face presence in the primary hub with regular regional travel; remote-only not viable.

Compensation

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

Reference: hospitality-travel · CMO · USA · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors