Chief Strategy Officer — Wealth Division

The mandate

A privately held wealth division runs thoughtful strategy cycles whose conclusions rarely alter capital, people or programme demand. Too many priorities survive into execution, and a core-banking renewal has become the default answer to conflicting ambitions. The board needs a Chief Strategy Officer who makes choices consequential before further platform investment is committed.

The Chief Strategy Officer will influence approximately S$65,300 million in loans and deposits and lead around 425 employees and material partners. Scope spans enterprise and divisional strategy, portfolio choices, market intelligence, capital cases, strategic planning, partnerships and execution governance. The Group Chief Executive or nominated executive committee sponsor is the direct reporting authority.

The strategy will begin with client and economic facts. Segment needs, assets, deposits, lending, fee yield, service effort, risk, capital and market position should reveal where the wealth franchise has a right to win. Growth ambition without capability, demand or complete economics will not become a priority.

The portfolio must fit within real resources. Each choice needs capital, cash, leadership, technology and operational capacity, plus the work that will stop. The CSO will expose when several individually sound initiatives compete for the same dependency and force sequencing rather than allow hidden overcommitment.

Core renewal will be governed as an enabler with boundaries. Product portability, data, client migration, control readiness and legacy retirement must connect to strategic propositions. The executive will prevent platform scope expanding to preserve every historical variation and stop business cases relying on benefits without adoption.

Trade-offs will be explicit. Invest, partner, narrow, delay and exit options should be compared on consistent economics and downside. Decision papers must show assumptions, reversibility and triggers. The strategy function should not manufacture consensus by removing the choices directors need to see.

Execution governance will track leading evidence. Customer adoption, milestones, cash, capacity and risk should reveal whether the thesis remains intact. External market movement must be separated from management action. When a threshold changes, the agreed response should follow without another annual strategy review.

Partnership and inorganic options will be judged against organic build. Data, customer ownership, economics, resilience, governance and exit matter alongside speed. The bank should avoid acquiring complexity the core renewal is intended to remove.

The strategy team will combine analytic independence with operator credibility. Business executives retain outcomes; the CSO owns the integrity of choice and enterprise interdependency. Succession will develop leaders who can move from diagnosis to resource decision and remain involved through results.

Board communication should make uncertainty legible. Ranges, scenarios and disputed assumptions are more decision-useful than a precise central case. The appointee will also ensure the following year’s capital and talent process reflects current evidence rather than repeat historical allocation.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned new position in the future operating model, not an incumbent replacement. The four-to-six-month process allows the appointee to arrive before the next capital and talent cycle while current leaders keep existing responsibilities until activation.

What you will own

• Reduce strategy to a small set of funded, sequenced priorities.
• Influence allocation across S$65,300 million of loans and deposits.
• Tie core-platform scope to explicit client and portfolio choices.
• Present invest, partner, narrow, defer and exit alternatives.
• Connect capital, talent, technology and operational capacity.
• Lead approximately 425 employees and partners with execution credibility.
• Track thesis evidence and trigger corrective decisions early.
• Give the board clear assumptions, uncertainty and downside action.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile strategic commitments, resources and platform dependencies. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to choice, including clients, product, technology, finance, risk, operations and partners. Assess leadership and agree board decision gates.

Months four to nine should stop unfunded priorities, sequence platform scope and settle major portfolio choices. Redirect capital and fill strategy capability gaps. Early value may be avoided investment, a partnership chosen over build, released capacity or a proposition accelerated with genuine support.

By year end, fewer priorities, explicit trade-offs and a funded path should be embedded in governance. Delivery must remain within 10% of approval and forecasts should reconcile customer, cash, capital and people over three quarters. Priority risks need independent closure evidence; severe escalation cannot age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Capital and people removed from work outside agreed priorities.
• Core-renewal scope connected to adopted customer propositions.
• Portfolio decisions changed when evidence crosses stated gates.
• Forecasts separating market movement from management action.
• Keep above nine in ten pivotal strategists and ready cover for seven in ten direct roles.
• Strategic cases with explicit downside, alternatives and reversibility.

The person

You are a Chief Strategy Officer, EVP Strategy or Corporate Development Head with 22–28 years in banking or adjacent regulated financial services. You have converted strategy into explicit capital and resource choices and tracked execution through board governance.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least S$37,850 million, and you have led 300 or more people. You can evidence outcomes sustained over two reporting periods.

You understand wealth economics, platforms, capital and partnerships. You can challenge attractive narratives, make interdependencies visible and retain executive followership when stopping sponsored work.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is S$360,000–480,000 plus annual incentive. The permanent Singapore appointment uses a hybrid model, supports international relocation and permits notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, strategy and platform choices remain unnamed until a confidential discussion establishes fit. Scale and circumstances are deliberately blended.