Multi-geography CTO — Consumer & Retail · anchored Africa

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Consumer, Retail & FMCG on a senior CTO leadership mandate anchored in Africa. The remit explicitly spans Continental Europe, Singapore, China.

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

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 Africa with explicit corridor responsibility across Continental Europe, Singapore, China.
• 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. Platform thinking: Shared capabilities (identity, payments, messaging) consumed by product teams — stop duplicate builds.
2. Quality at scale: Test strategy that scales with release frequency — automation first, manual where it adds signal.
3. Edge & latency: Where geography matters, improve performance and data residency posture deliberately.
4. Green IT: Energy and carbon awareness in architecture choices where material to brand and regulation.
5. Tech due diligence: On acquisitions, protect against hidden liabilities in code, security, and contracts.
6. Succession in engineering: Reduce bus factor on critical systems through pairing, docs, and rotation.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Drive platform consolidation where fragmentation hurts speed or cost.
• Establish technical programme management for large migrations or rewrites.
• Improve engineering metrics — lead time, change failure rate, incident trends.
• Represent technology risk and opportunity clearly to board and investors.
• Ensure regulatory expectations on systems are met in financial services, health, etc.

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.
• Scale experience: Systems and organisations that grew materially under your technology leadership.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Africa with regular engagement across Continental Europe, Singapore.

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)

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

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

Reference: consumer-retail-fmcg · CTO · Africa · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors