Head of Pharma & Biotech — India (CMO-level mandate)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology on a senior CMO leadership mandate anchored in India.

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 will be measured on outcomes that compound: talent depth, customer trust, and a balance sheet that can flex through cycles.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Biosimilars and specialty pharma commercialisation — moving from commoditised generics to branded specialty requires entirely new commercial leadership capabilities
• Geographic spine: Primary hub India with reporting lines into global / regional matrix partners.
• 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: R&D and innovation leadership — transitioning from generic-follow business models to differentiated, IP-rich innovation pipelines requires a different type of scientific and commercial leadership

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Win/loss intelligence: Systematise why deals are won or lost; feed insights to product and pricing weekly.
2. Channel conflict: Clarify rules of engagement where direct and indirect routes overlap.
3. Localization at scale: Templates and playbooks that local markets can adapt without fragmenting the brand.
4. Analyst & influencer relations: Where sector norms apply, strengthen third-party validation without over-promising.
5. Marketing operations: SLAs between marketing, sales ops, and RevOps — fewer dropped leads, faster follow-up.
6. Budget agility: Shift spend quarterly toward working channels — kill sacred cows with weak CAC/LTV.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Build product marketing capability tied to roadmap and revenue plays.
• Improve marketing ROI measurement — acceptable proxies where full attribution is impossible.
• Develop partner and channel marketing where indirect routes dominate.
• Instil crisis communications readiness with legal and corporate affairs.
• Coach the organisation on narrative discipline — one story, many channels.

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.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Modern marketing: Fluency with data, segmentation, and accountable spend — not only creative excellence.
• Geographic muscle: Deep experience leading in or from India with credible local stakeholder judgment.

Team & culture

Expect some fatigue from prior change programmes. Your success depends on simpler priorities, fewer initiatives, and leaders who model accountability. Culture is how decisions get made when spreadsheets disagree — you set that tone.

Success measures (examples)

• Growth quality: Mix of recurring revenue, new logos, and cross-sell — not volume for its own sake.
• Productivity: Unit cost, automation savings, or throughput improvements with audited baselines.
• Customer: NPS / CSAT where tracked; contract renewals; reference-ability in strategic accounts.
• Franchise: Clean compliance record; reputation stability in industry and government forums.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Listening tour — customers, regulators (as appropriate), top team 1:1s, and unfiltered view of numbers; pause major reorganisation.
• Days 30–60: Publish a short memo on priorities, non-goals, and decision rights; align executive committee on three enterprise bets.
• Days 60–90: Lock operating cadence; fill or upgrade one to two critical seats; deliver one visible win (customer, cost, or culture).
• Commission a pragmatic view of data, cyber, and automation posture; sponsor one bounded pilot with ROI hypothesis.
• Establish escalation discipline with matrix partners — fewer meetings, clearer decision logs.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: CEO or regional president, CFO, risk / legal, CHRO, CIO or CDO, business GMs, internal audit.
• External: Strategic accounts, channel partners, industry associations, regulators (where material).
• Owners: PE operating partners, promoter office, or public investors — pace and clarity matter as much as vision.

Travel & mobility

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

Compensation

Market-aligned CMO remuneration in Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology with performance linkage; sign-on and relocation considered for exceptional fits.

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 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology and India. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: pharmaceuticals-biotech · CMO · India · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors