Chief-of-staff to regional chair (CFO calibre) — Energy · USA

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Energy & Natural Resources on a senior CFO leadership mandate anchored in USA. The remit explicitly spans Africa, Middle East, Continental Europe.

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

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

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Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Energy transition leadership — finding executives who can credibly lead both the traditional energy business and new clean energy build-out simultaneously
• Geographic spine: Primary hub USA with explicit corridor responsibility across Africa, Middle East, Continental Europe.
• Organisation stage: Portfolio under review: non-core assets, JVs, and country footprints are actively questioned each planning cycle.
• Stakeholders: Stakeholders span board or regional executive committee, global functional heads, JV partners, and strategic account buyers.
• Secondary lens: Utility transformation — moving state DISCOMs and private utilities from loss-making distribution operations to efficient, digital-first consumer energy service companies

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The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Cost of complexity: Quantify overhead from legal entities, intercompany flows, and manual reconciliations — simplify where safe.
2. Revenue assurance: Partner with sales operations on billing, recognition, and leakage — especially in long-cycle contracts.
3. Capex governance: Move from annual budget theatre to rolling, scenario-based capital decisions tied to strategy.
4. Insurance & risk transfer: Review programme design with risk — align retentions and coverage to real loss patterns.
5. Audit readiness: Close repeat findings permanently; build first-line ownership in business units, not only finance remediation.
6. Board reporting: Tighten packs — fewer pages, clearer bridges from strategy to financial outcomes.

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Responsibilities (representative)

• Own external reporting narrative, lender covenants, and rating / investor conversations as delegated.
• Lead FP&A, controllership, tax, and treasury with clear accountability and talent depth.
• Partner with business units on pricing, deal economics, and post-merger synergy realisation.
• Ensure internal controls and audit findings are remediated with sustainable fixes.
• Challenge growth plans that lack capital discipline or credible downside cases.

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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.
• Finance leadership: Controllership-quality foundations plus credible FP&A and external stakeholder experience.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from USA with regular engagement across Africa, Middle East.

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Team & culture

The organisation runs hot — ambitious targets and thin buffers. You need to channel energy into sustainable rhythms: predictable planning, honest risk surfacing, and recovery time for teams after major pushes.

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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

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

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Compensation

Competitive CFO compensation for Energy & Natural Resources 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: energy-natural-resources · CFO · USA · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors