Sector practice head — Consumer & Retail (Middle East) · CIO

Position overview

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

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

You inherit teams that are capable but often misaligned on priorities; your job is to simplify the story and the scorecard.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Finding leaders who can balance brand equity building (long-term) with performance marketing ROI (short-term) — the most common tension in modern FMCG leadership
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Middle East with explicit corridor responsibility across Continental Europe, India, Singapore.
• Organisation stage: Post-integration operating model still settling — some processes are global templates, others are stubbornly local.
• Stakeholders: Expect dense matrix: global product houses, regional P&L owners, shared services, and internal audit all pull on the same calendar.
• Secondary lens: Leading rural penetration strategies while simultaneously building premium urban propositions — requiring leaders who can manage both ends of the demand pyramid

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Core systems: Stabilise ERP / core banking / policy admin (as relevant) — reduce outages and major incident frequency.
2. Roadmap governance: Align business cases to enterprise priorities; stop pet projects that drain scarce capacity.
3. Cyber posture: Partner with CISO on identity, segmentation, and third-party risk — especially for critical vendors.
4. Business partnership: Embed IT leaders into P&L forums with clear service levels and joint accountability.
5. Cloud & infrastructure: Right-size hosting strategy; improve disaster recovery and scalability where growth strains capacity.
6. Sourcing: Rationalise SI relationships; improve contract discipline and outcome-based metrics.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Own IT service delivery, run cost, and major business system programmes.
• Partner with business on digital initiatives — clear roles vs. product/engineering where split.
• Lead infrastructure, cloud, and workplace technology strategy.
• Co-own cyber resilience with CISO; prioritise by business criticality.
• Rationalise application portfolio — retire, replace, or integrate duplicates.

Leadership profile

• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Business systems: Large programme delivery — ERP, core platforms, or digital workplace at scale.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Middle East with regular engagement across Continental Europe, India.

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

Expect substantial travel — customer, hub, and owner meetings. Specific cadence discussed with shortlisted candidates.

Compensation

Competitive CIO compensation for Consumer, Retail & FMCG 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 Consumer, Retail & FMCG and Middle East. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: consumer-retail-fmcg · CIO · Middle East · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors