Interim President, International Markets — Scale

Leading a programme across borders

International delivery programmes in energy and utility services tend to fail in the gaps between countries rather than inside them. Each market can report progress on its own terms while the programme as a whole drifts, because nobody is comparing like with like or deciding which market's needs come first when resources are short. The Interim President, International Markets is appointed to lead the programme as one, with the executive authority that requires, reporting to the Investment Committee.

You will decide which programme calls sit with the centre and which with each market, with clear limits for local leadership, and set the programme evidence on which investment, capacity and control are weighed in every country. You decide which inherited commitments proceed, which wait and which end. You can stop any scheme that drops its cost or risk on a market that has not accepted it, and turn down investment where the case leaves out adoption, the work it depends on or the downside. You sign off who leads the programme and how problems escalate, and bring the committee and the country heads to agreement before funds are allocated.

Energy and utility markets are shaped by regulation that differs country by country, and a credible international programme respects those differences without letting them become a reason for every market to run its own version. The skill lies in deciding which variations the regulator, the asset base or the customer genuinely demands, and which have simply been inherited. In a cooperatively owned organisation, members also expect to understand how decisions affect them.

Twenty-four months of delivery

By ninety days the Investment Committee should have agreed the international delivery programme, with an accountable leader for each market, defined programme stages and investment thresholds. Around month nine the programme should be reporting to the committee on a fixed rhythm, and market commitments that are falling short should be on hold or closed on evidence rather than allowed to linger. By month 24 the programme should be concluded across the international markets, with a leadership structure and escalation routes that the committee has seen tested under real pressure.

A president who documents the boundary

Two countries, 1,300 people and revenue of $570 million or more mark the smallest scale at which you should have led, and your record shows evidence changing decisions about people, money or management attention. You can say which regulatory variation a market must keep and which it can give up, and you document the boundary. The Investment Committee will examine your regulatory remediation, joint venture and turnaround experience, together with strategy formation at level 4; level 3 is sought in operating cadence, in risk judgement and in P&L ownership. You can describe an unresolved gap to a committee without treating uncertainty as a reason to wait. The seat is not for someone who must bring every market round before stopping a commitment, or who wants influence without accountability for the full 24 months.

Selection runs over seven weeks. The Investment Committee speaks with you first, in confidence and over video in the opening week, about how you would structure the programme. In the third week you work through it in a session with the Audit Committee Chair. In week five you are questioned in person by executives spanning the organisation's functions, and the full set of directors sees you in week seven. Our written response to each stage comes within three working days.