Head of Consumer & Retail — USA (CSO-level mandate)

Position overview

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

This is a sector or practice-head mandate combining deep domain credibility with commercial ownership of a vertical P&L or global practice line.

The client values executives who build repeatable operating mechanisms, not heroic firefighting that resets every quarter.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Category creation leadership — as emerging categories (nutraceuticals, plant-based foods, sustainable personal care) grow, finding leaders with both the technical depth and commercial instinct
• Geographic spine: Primary hub USA with explicit corridor responsibility across Middle East, India, Australia.
• Organisation stage: Recent leadership turnover created ambiguity on priorities; you will need to re-establish a crisp enterprise storyline.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Building omnichannel commercial capability — integrating traditional distribution (GT/MT) with e-commerce, quick commerce, and D2C in a coherent go-to-market model

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Strategic resource allocation: Shift Opex and capex toward bets with highest risk-adjusted return.
2. Discontinuities: Monitor technology and business model shifts that could obsolete current advantages.
3. Customer futures: Scenario plans for how buyer behaviour evolves — especially in B2B services.
4. Exit options: For weak units, define paths (fix, sell, close) with timelines — stop infinite turnaround.
5. Strategic partnerships: Governance that prevents partners from capturing too much of the upside.
6. Metrics hygiene: Strategy scorecard linked to incentives — not a parallel slide deck no one owns.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Challenge business unit strategies for overlap and capital inefficiency.
• Align innovation portfolio with enterprise bets — kill projects that drift.
• Sequence geographic or segment expansion with realistic operating assumptions.
• Integrate ESG into strategy where material to licence to operate and growth.
• Build strategy team talent — mix of analytics, finance, and industry depth.

Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Deal or transformation fluency: M&A, portfolio moves, or major change programmes in Consumer, Retail & FMCG.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from USA with regular engagement across Middle East, India.

Team & culture

Silos are real. Your job is to design forums and incentives so product, technology, risk, and commercial leaders solve problems together instead of optimising local KPIs.

Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

Compensation

Package aligned to CSO benchmarks in Consumer, Retail & FMCG — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

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 USA. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: consumer-retail-fmcg · CSO · USA · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors