EVP – International Strategy — Powertrain Division

The mandate

An institutionally backed powertrain division is pursuing distributors, local assembly and technical partnerships across several international markets. The investment committee wants a strategy leader to make entry and exit rules operational, ensuring expansion proposals clearly state the supplier, homologation and service conditions required to earn acceptable returns in markets with fragile ecosystems.

The EVP will guide an approximately THB 14,350 million regional revenue and programme portfolio affecting 2,375 employees and partners. Scope covers international strategy, market prioritisation, business cases, alliances, localisation, portfolio sequencing and strategic reviews. Country and operating leaders own execution; procurement owns sourcing contracts. The EVP owns the quality of choices, the gates attached to capital and whether leaders exit when a thesis fails.

Market attractiveness will be assessed at duty-cycle and system level. Emissions rules, fuel quality, electrification pace, commercial-fleet buying and service density change which powertrain offers are viable. The strategy must include homologation time, tooling, warranty, working capital, remittance, foreign exchange and end-of-life support. A distributor’s forecast is not evidence of adoption, and a government incentive is not durable economics unless qualification and sunset are modelled.

Supplier resilience is an entry condition, not a later workstream. Each case will identify single-source materials, tooling ownership, logistics corridors, local quality capability and practical recovery. Localisation should proceed only where volume, learning or risk benefit outweighs duplication. Partners will be evaluated for technical contribution, access, governance and exit behaviour, rather than political or commercial reach alone.

Why this seat is open

The former EVP accepted an external appointment on an accelerated timetable. Interim strategy coverage can maintain analysis but cannot recommend the impending capital decisions. This is an urgent replacement targeted within six to eight weeks. The departure is not related to an undisclosed investment loss or conduct issue.

What you will own

• Define comparable market-entry, expansion, pause and exit criteria.
• Integrate customer demand, regulation, supply resilience, service and full cash economics.
• Structure partnership theses with authority, contribution, milestones and exit rights.
• Establish small, testable commitments before irreversible localisation or capacity.
• Run portfolio reviews that stop weak international positions promptly.
• Build country-strategy capability and succession beyond the EVP office.

The strategy process will separate facts from advocacy. Country leaders may sponsor a proposal, but finance, supply, product and service assumptions will have independent owners. Red teams will test downside, substitution and exit cost before approval. The EVP will record conditions under which the committee’s decision should be reopened, preventing sunk cost or executive sponsorship from becoming an unstated reason to continue.

Existing positions require the same scrutiny as new entries. A market may deserve harvest, narrower product scope, a different partner or responsible withdrawal. Exit plans must protect customer warranty, employee obligations, inventory, tooling and brand. The leader will communicate decisions early enough for operating teams to preserve value, without signalling confidential moves prematurely to competitors or counterparties.

Geopolitical and currency scenarios will be converted into actions rather than narrative sensitivities. Cases will identify which contracts can be repriced, which components can move, when trapped cash changes the thesis and who owns the trigger. Market teams will rehearse the decision path before a disruption removes negotiating time.

The first 12 months

In the first 75 days, the EVP will re-underwrite the six largest international positions, identify immediate supplier or cash exposure and present common gates to the investment committee. Pending capital will be contained until critical assumptions are evidenced.

By month eight, at least two market strategies should have changed course through a staged entry, redesigned alliance, reduced commitment or exit. Every priority market will maintain a supplier-recovery and service-capability plan, and partner reviews will include governance and portability.

At year-end, 90% of international growth capital should sit behind approved milestones, with forecast investment and cash within 10% of gate assumptions. Two pilot commitments must reach an explicit scale-or-stop decision on schedule. Subscale markets should either improve contribution against agreed bridges or execute dated withdrawal plans without material customer breach.

What the board will measure

• Capital committed only after testable market evidence.
• Supplier and service feasibility embedded in entry choices.
• Partnerships governed beyond ceremonial relationships.
• Timely reduction or exit when assumptions fail.
• Independent strategy capability within markets.

The person

You are an EVP Strategy, international development head or CSO with 22–28 years in automotive, components, industrial technology or mobility. Your prior accountable portfolio is at least THB 8,300 million and 1,675 employees. The committee expects examples of a market entry you staged, a partnership you reset and an international exit completed responsibly.

This onsite Bangkok role requires extensive market, partner and supplier travel. You must combine analytical independence with experience of the operational consequences of cross-border choices.

Compensation and terms

Base salary is THB 9–13 million plus annual incentive. Measures include capital discipline, milestone quality, resilient entries, partnership outcomes, timely exits and succession. Final terms reflect current mix; notice up to six months may be considered.

Confidentiality

The sponsor, target markets, partners, supply exposures and portfolio decisions are confidential. Controlled detail follows candidate qualification and an undertaking. Bangkok and the approximate perimeter are non-identifying.