EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Premium-Brands Portfolio

The mandate

The organisation is entering a phase that demands forcing portfolio choices that successive planning cycles deferred in a privately held multi-category consumer-goods group. The immediate business arena is the premium-brands portfolio, where a gross-margin recovery has exposed choices that can no longer be deferred. The successful executive will inherit an organisation with real strengths, but also competing stakeholder expectations and investment cases that require firmer evidence.

The accountable perimeter is approximately GBP 4,900 million across the consumer goods value chain. It includes several customer, product or delivery clusters and roughly 1,025 employees and material partners. These are deliberately rounded, composite ranges: they establish candidate scale without encoding a recognisable client footprint.

The board wants a EVP – Strategy and Portfolio who can reduce a long list of activity to a small set of consequential choices. The seat must deliver a gross-margin recovery while protecting the capabilities that make the premium-brands portfolio valuable. Authority will cover resources, leadership appointments and operating standards within scope; enterprise trade-offs will go directly to the board sponsor.

The first year must finish with explicit capital choices, sequenced growth moves and timely exits. Success will require direct engagement with customers, employees, capital providers, regulators where relevant and critical partners across the United Kingdom. This is an operating mandate with board access, not a staff role that stops at recommendations.

Why this seat is open

This is an urgent replacement for the EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Premium-Brands Portfolio seat following an accelerated leadership transition. Interim accountability is in place for the premium-brands portfolio, but the board wants a permanent appointment within 6–8 weeks because a gross-margin recovery cannot remain under split ownership. The predecessor’s outcome is being handled neutrally and professionally. The external search remains confidential until the preferred candidate and transition plan are agreed.

What you will own

• Set the value thesis for the premium-brands portfolio, translate it into no more than five priorities and stop activity that cannot support those priorities with evidence.
• Carry stewardship of approximately GBP 4,900 million, including allocation, risk acceptance, forecast integrity and the quality of decisions taken at the operating review.
• Lead a perimeter of about 1,025 employees and partners, appointing a team with explicit decision rights and credible succession for every critical seat.
• Resolve a gross-margin recovery through named owners, dated milestones and escalation thresholds that make variance visible before a quarter or programme gate closes.
• Install one review linking commercial, customer, financial, people, technology and risk outcomes; eliminate reconciliations that disguise accountability.
• Sponsor the two or three capability investments that can materially change the trajectory, and close initiatives whose evidence does not justify continued funding.
• Build a three-year talent and succession plan for the premium-brands portfolio, reducing dependence on individual executives and creating mobility across the wider Consumer Goods group.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Validate the baseline; meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to the premium-brands portfolio; assess the leadership team; stabilise immediate customer, people and control risks; and agree a board-owned scorecard.
• Months 4–9: Make the principal portfolio and organisation choices, fill critical leadership gaps, install the new cadence and deliver the first measurable release of cash, capacity, customer value or controlled risk.
• Months 10–12: Establish a repeatable performance trend, secure the following year’s capital and talent plan, prove that fixes are sustained and present a three-year value case with downside actions.

What the board will measure

• Delivery of the agreed first-year value case within a 10% tolerance, with variance surfaced before the relevant reporting period closes.
• A decision-useful forecast across three consecutive quarters that reconciles operating, cash, customer and people assumptions.
• Closure of the highest-priority issues behind a gross-margin recovery by their board-approved dates, with independent evidence that remediation is sustained.
• Retention of at least 90% of identified critical talent and ready-now successors for at least 70% of the EVP – Strategy and Portfolio’s direct reports.
• A quantified improvement in the primary premium-brands portfolio constraint, supported by a clean baseline, named data owner and repeatable measurement method.
• No unresolved high-severity escalation older than 30 days and no material surprise withheld from the agreed governance forum.

The person

You are currently a EVP Strategy, Chief Strategy Officer or Portfolio Executive in a privately held organisation. Your track record includes a transition where the original plan ceased to be sufficient and you can explain the choices you personally made, the evidence used and the numerical impact. Candidates from consumer goods, food and beverage, beauty, household products, retail or consumer health will be considered where the operating model, customer stakes and governance intensity are comparable.

You bring 22–28 years of progressive experience, consistent with the 22-28 band. At minimum, you have carried a P&L, book, budget or accountable portfolio of GBP 2,850 million and led at least 700 employees. Advisory candidates must show equivalent client-value ownership and multi-disciplinary leadership rather than subject expertise alone.

The board expects two completed transitions: one involving a difficult portfolio or resource choice, and another requiring the leadership system to change during material pressure. You should be equally comfortable challenging an optimistic case and creating followership after the decision. References must distinguish your contribution from the institution around you.

An undergraduate degree or equivalent professional formation is required; a relevant postgraduate or regulated professional qualification is advantageous where the mandate warrants it. The role is based in London, United Kingdom. Relocation is expected; a structured commute may be considered only during an agreed transition period. Regional and intercontinental travel is part of the appointment, but the seat is not remote.

Non-negotiables

• Current or recent accountability at the level of EVP Strategy, Chief Strategy Officer or Portfolio Executive, with direct exposure to a board, investment committee or equivalent enterprise-governance forum.
• Proven ownership of at least GBP 2,850 million and leadership of no fewer than 700 employees in a comparable operating context.
• One completed example of forcing portfolio choices that successive planning cycles deferred, with outcomes sustained for at least two reporting periods after the intervention.
• Sector credibility from consumer goods, food and beverage, beauty, household products, retail or consumer health; purely functional experience without operating consequences will not meet the bar.
• Willingness to meet the London location expectation, complete conflicts and background diligence, and protect the search’s confidentiality.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated package is GBP 250,000–340,000 base + annual incentive and long-term participation, calibrated to final scope and the candidate’s current mix. Long-term participation follows the employer’s normal vesting and performance conditions. This is a full-time executive appointment with a standard five-day working week, additional availability appropriate to the office and material travel during diagnosis and implementation. A notice period of up to 6 months can be accommodated. No application, assessment, placement or onboarding fee is charged to candidates.

How to apply

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Confidentiality

The employer is represented as confidential, which Google permits for anonymous recruitment. Identifying information will be shared only after mutual relevance is established and an undertaking is in place. Rounded scale, blended context and broad archetypes are intentional and must not be used to infer a company name.