Regional Chief Executive Officer — Speciality-Materials Portfolio

The mandate

Three US plants in a speciality-materials portfolio require integrated operational leadership. Overall demand remains healthy, yet unstable campaigns, unplanned maintenance, variable raw materials and an increasingly complex grade slate have reduced saleable yield. Overtime and external processing are masking lost capacity, premium customers face allocation and a recently approved expansion assumes performance improvement. The board has created an unplanned Regional Chief Executive appointment to take integrated command.

Approximately 3,525 employees and material partners sit within the portfolio, including continuous and batch operations, technical service, commercial teams, supply chain, research interfaces and central functions. The CEO carries full regional P&L and capital accountability. Plant leaders retain legal and safety duties; the portfolio leader must make certain that commercial allocation, technical specification and factory recovery operate against one economic truth.

This is not a generic cost programme. Some low-volume grades consume disproportionate cleaning, testing and changeover time but anchor valuable customer relationships. Other products look profitable because rework, off-spec disposition and technical service are poorly attributed. The CEO will establish contribution by constraint-hour and quality burden, then decide which grades to improve, reprice, relocate, pause or exit. Customer implications require board visibility before action.

Plant recovery begins with process stability. Asset condition, operating windows, instrumentation health, control-loop performance and operator routines must be tested at the line. The leader need not be the principal engineer, but must recognise when a target depends on running outside validated limits. Maintenance prioritisation will consider production consequence and safeguard integrity, not only work-order age.

Raw-material variation is another source of hidden loss. Procurement savings have introduced alternate sources faster than process capability and laboratory methods adapted. Supplier qualification, incoming controls and recipe tolerance need a common technical owner. Where customer specification is narrower than process capability, the solution may be customer dialogue or product redesign rather than endless sorting.

The expansion decision will be reopened. Committed safety or compliance work continues, while discretionary capacity proceeds only when base-plant reliability and demand economics are evidenced. The CEO will present scenarios that include delayed ramp, cannibalisation, workforce readiness and customer qualification. Sunk design cost must not dictate the remaining investment.

An experienced regional leader left suddenly after the board asked for a more fundamental recovery case. The interim committee can authorise safety and customer decisions but is slowing trade-offs across plants. This urgent seat has direct access to the Group Chief Executive and board and authority to reshape the regional team.

What you will own

• Carry the US portfolio P&L, cash, capital, safety, environmental and customer commitments.
• Stabilise plant yield, throughput, maintenance and schedule adherence without compromising process limits.
• Rebuild grade, customer and asset economics using constraint consumption and true quality cost.
• Govern allocation during shortage with commercial, legal and technical input.
• Decide the expansion path and sequence any remaining capital against demonstrated readiness.
• Reset raw-material qualification and supplier performance with procurement and technical leaders.
• Strengthen plant leadership, operating discipline and succession across critical roles.
• Maintain constructive relationships with communities, regulators and represented workforces.

The first 12 months

In the opening 45 days, establish safe operating status at each plant, validate the capacity bridge and personally review the largest yield and downtime losses. Meet priority customers to understand qualification and allocation exposure. Present a fact base separating equipment, process, material, people and portfolio causes, with immediate containment and investment decisions.

By month six, stabilise priority production trains, restore critical preventive maintenance, simplify the most damaging grade sequences and implement contribution-per-constraint-hour decisions. Agree revised customer allocations and recover the technical talent pipeline. The board should receive a defendable proceed, redesign or defer recommendation for expansion.

Within one year, improve saleable yield by at least six percentage points, reduce unplanned downtime by 30%, lower external processing and overtime cost by 25% and restore service above 95% for protected customer commitments. The portfolio must return to plan for two quarters, with zero serious safety or environmental event, no concealed off-spec release and capital forecast within 8%.

What the board will measure

• Durable throughput from stable assets and processes, not unsustainable labour intensity.
• Product and customer choices grounded in complete economics.
• Transparent allocation and retained trust during constrained supply.
• Capital committed only when base performance and ramp capability support it.
• Visible plant leadership and technical depth.
• P&L recovery consistent with environmental, workforce and community obligations.

The person

You offer more than 28 years in speciality chemicals, advanced materials, ingredients, coatings, polymers or an adjacent process industry. You have led a substantial US region or global division with direct P&L, plant, commercial and capital authority. Candidates whose experience is confined to corporate strategy or one functional discipline will not meet the threshold.

Your evidence should include a multi-plant yield recovery, a portfolio simplification that protected important customers and a capital decision changed by operating facts. A prior remit above US$1.5 billion revenue or 2,500 employees and partners is expected. You can work with process engineers in the morning, customers in the afternoon and directors on capital allocation without changing the underlying truth.

Compensation and terms

The base range is US$600,000–850,000 plus annual incentive and long-term equity linked to safe portfolio recovery, cash, service and enduring value. The permanent appointment is onsite in Chicago with frequent plant travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive and board. Transition timing will be evaluated against the urgency of the situation.

Confidentiality

Portfolio identity, plant performance, customer allocations, product economics and investment materials are restricted. Further data is shared in a controlled process after credentials, conflicts and confidentiality are cleared. Candidates must not conduct independent market enquiries designed to identify the enterprise.