SVP – Product and Markets — Speciality-Materials Portfolio

The mandate

A US speciality-materials portfolio is consolidating production from an older site into two continuing facilities. Operations has a physical transfer plan, but the commercial implications vary by grade and customer. Some products require lengthy requalification when manufacturing location, raw-material source or analytical method changes; others can transfer quickly but have marginal economics. The new SVP – Product and Markets will own the choices between transfer, bridge supply, reformulation, partnership and exit.

The portfolio includes approximately 1,475 employees and material partners across product management, market development, applications, technical service, sales and manufacturing interfaces. The SVP reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and carries global product-market accountability for the affected range. Plant managers own safe manufacture, quality owns release and account leaders own relationships; this role decides the portfolio promise they can jointly sustain.

Customer segmentation must reflect qualification consequence, not revenue alone. A modest annual account may use the material in a regulated or safety-critical component where change requires years. A large customer may have practical alternatives and strong negotiating leverage. The leader will assess application criticality, switching cost, strategic adjacency, contribution and future demand before allocating technical and bridge capacity.

Product economics will include complexity. Campaign size, cleaning, test burden, raw-material minimums, shelf life, technical complaints and working capital can turn an apparently attractive margin into a loss. Conversely, a small grade may share chemistry and qualifications that enable a valuable platform. Decisions will be made at family and value-chain level, with assumptions visible.

The transfer narrative to customers must be technically precise. Teams cannot promise equivalence before validation, nor surprise customers after internal timelines are fixed. The SVP will establish communication and sample gates, customer-specific evidence packages and escalation for requested deviations. Commercial concessions should be exchanged for useful commitments such as forecast clarity, qualification support or revised specification.

Innovation resources will be redirected toward transfer-enabling reformulation, growth applications and platform simplification. Novelty is not the objective. Each development requires a customer problem, adoption path, manufacturing fit and stop point. Intellectual property and freedom-to-operate must be considered when external tolling or licensing becomes an option.

This urgent new role exists because no current executive spans product choices, market consequence and transfer governance. Footprint deadlines are already public within the workforce, so indecision will erode customer confidence. The SVP will join the consolidation steering group with authority over commercial sequencing.

What you will own

• Decide transfer, reformulation, bridge, partner or exit routes for every affected product family.
• Segment customers by application consequence, strategic value, qualification effort and economics.
• Establish complete grade contribution including manufacturing and technical complexity.
• Govern customer communication, samples, qualification evidence and commercial exceptions.
• Prioritise applications and innovation resources against adoption and footprint needs.
• Shape pricing, specification and forecast commitments during constrained transfer capacity.
• Coordinate commercial readiness with manufacturing, quality, regulatory and supply chain.
• Build product managers and technical marketers with accountable portfolio judgement.

The first 12 months

During the first 60 days, classify the portfolio and affected customers, meet the most qualification-sensitive accounts and test the capacity available for bridge inventory and samples. Identify products whose existing transfer assumption is commercially or technically implausible. Provide the steering group with decision dates and customer consequences.

By month six, agree a route and accountable economics for every priority family, initiate customer qualifications and conclude partner or exit cases. Simplify low-value variants where consent permits and sequence trials around scarce technical and plant resources. Product managers should maintain one customer-to-manufacturing transfer record.

Within twelve months, secure qualification or an agreed bridge for 95% of retained revenue, reduce loss-making grade complexity by 25% and protect at least 97% of targeted strategic-account value. Transfer-related premium freight and write-offs should remain inside the approved case, and no major customer should discover an uncommunicated manufacturing-location change. The growth pipeline must include three validated applications with named adoption partners.

What the sponsor will measure

• Portfolio choices made before plant deadlines force them.
• Customer criticality and qualification effort reflected in allocation.
• True grade economics replacing volume and gross-margin shorthand.
• Technically honest communication and timely samples.
• Innovation focused on adoption, transfer and scalable platforms.
• Retained customer trust with fewer structurally unattractive products.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in product, commercial or market leadership for speciality chemicals, advanced materials, ingredients or performance products. You have led a site-transfer portfolio or comparable qualification-intensive change with direct customer accountability. A broad sales career without product and manufacturing decisions will not satisfy the role.

Your prior scope should exceed US$750 million revenue or 1,000 employees and partners. Evidence must include a product exit, a requalification programme and a technical-commercial negotiation. You understand contribution economics, applications development and intellectual property sufficiently to govern specialists, and you are prepared to spend substantial time with plants and customer technical teams.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$320,000–420,000 plus annual incentive linked to qualification, retained value, portfolio quality, transfer cost and growth adoption. This permanent onsite Chicago role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and requires plant and customer travel. An accelerated start is preferred given current transfer decisions.

Confidentiality

The portfolio, closing and receiving sites, customer applications, formulations and qualification data are confidential. Further disclosure follows fit, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants may not contact customers, laboratories or competitors to identify the company or validate presumed transfers.