Regional Managing Director — Middle East · Automotive

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Automotive & Transportation on a senior CSO leadership mandate anchored in Middle East. The remit explicitly spans Singapore, Malaysia, Africa.

This is a country CEO / MD-class mandate with board- and headquarters-facing accountability for strategy execution, regulatory relationships, and brand in-market.

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: Software-defined vehicle leadership — as software becomes 40-50% of vehicle value, OEMs need engineering leaders who can build software capability in traditionally hardware-focused organisations
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Middle East with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, Malaysia, Africa.
• Organisation stage: Customer concentration in a handful of strategic accounts shapes both opportunity and reputational risk.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: New mobility business models — subscription-based mobility, fleet electrification, and B2B mobility services require commercial leaders with non-traditional backgrounds

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Strategic resource allocation: Shift Opex and capex toward bets with highest risk-adjusted return.
2. Discontinuities: Monitor technology and business model shifts that could obsolete current advantages.
3. Customer futures: Scenario plans for how buyer behaviour evolves — especially in B2B services.
4. Exit options: For weak units, define paths (fix, sell, close) with timelines — stop infinite turnaround.
5. Strategic partnerships: Governance that prevents partners from capturing too much of the upside.
6. Metrics hygiene: Strategy scorecard linked to incentives — not a parallel slide deck no one owns.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Challenge business unit strategies for overlap and capital inefficiency.
• Align innovation portfolio with enterprise bets — kill projects that drift.
• Sequence geographic or segment expansion with realistic operating assumptions.
• Integrate ESG into strategy where material to licence to operate and growth.
• Build strategy team talent — mix of analytics, finance, and industry depth.

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.
• Deal or transformation fluency: M&A, portfolio moves, or major change programmes in Automotive & Transportation.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Middle East with regular engagement across Singapore, Malaysia.

Team & culture

Silos are real. Your job is to design forums and incentives so product, technology, risk, and commercial leaders solve problems together instead of optimising local KPIs.

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 CSO remuneration in Automotive & Transportation 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 Automotive & Transportation and Middle East. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: automotive-transportation · CSO · Middle East · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors