EVP – Sustainability and Transition — Consumer-Finance Book

The mandate

A listed consumer-finance group has published transition commitments, yet new-country and product proposals still reach the capital committee without a consistent view of financed impact, customer affordability or implementation cost. Teams can describe ambition but cannot show how it changes pricing, eligibility, partnerships or portfolio limits. A cross-border growth thesis now makes that separation between promise and decision untenable.

The EVP – Sustainability and Transition will influence approximately CHF 4,350 million of assets and investments and lead about 120 employees and material partners. The role covers transition strategy, portfolio pathways, product standards, data, disclosure, partnership and delivery governance. Risk and finance retain independent ownership; the EVP must embed credible transition economics into their ordinary decisions.

Consumer finance requires careful treatment. A product that supports lower-emission assets may still create unaffordable debt; geographic averages can misstate individual outcomes; and withdrawal can exclude customers who lack alternatives. The executive must define evidence and guardrails that join environmental progress, customer fairness, credit performance and commercial viability.

Commitments need accountable pathways. Each should identify baseline, financed intervention, adoption, uncertainty, capital requirement and stop or corrective action. Claims and disclosures must trace back to governed data. The board wants auditable progress, not a parallel sustainability narrative.

Cross-border comparison adds methodological risk. Electricity mixes, asset standards, subsidies and customer alternatives differ by market, so a common label may not represent a common transition contribution. The EVP will define where local factors alter eligibility and how portfolio reporting remains comparable without erasing those differences. Model changes must preserve prior-period explainability.

The role also owns the boundary between genuine customer incentive and subsidy leakage. Preferential pricing should be tested for additional behaviour, credit performance and persistence after promotional support ends. Partnerships with manufacturers or marketplaces require governance of claims, data access and complaints. If the financed asset fails to deliver its promised benefit, customer treatment and disclosure must already be clear.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement with the incumbent supporting an orderly handover. The board has allowed four to six months for assessment and diligence, protecting disclosure continuity while the new growth thesis is shaped. Communication will follow a controlled sequence.

What you will own

• Translate public transition commitments into portfolio, product and capital decisions.
• Define customer and environmental safeguards for transition-linked consumer lending.
• Steward CHF 4,350 million of assets, investment, risk acceptance and forecasts.
• Build governed baselines, pathways, data lineage and disclosure evidence.
• Assess partners and suppliers whose claims enter product propositions.
• Set delivery owners, milestones and corrective gates for material commitments.
• Lead 120 employees and partners and strengthen succession across specialist roles.
• Challenge expansion where transition or fairness evidence is not decision ready.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, map published commitments to funded initiatives and decision owners. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to transition delivery, including customers represented through research, product, credit, finance, risk and market leaders. Test the most material data lineage, assess the team, stabilise imminent disclosures and agree capital gates for cross-border proposals.

Months four to nine should embed transition tests in product and market approval, prioritise the pathways capable of changing outcomes and retire unsupported claims. Fill critical leadership gaps and produce the first measurable customer, capital or portfolio result. External assurance should focus on assumptions that could alter decisions, not reperform every calculation.

By year end, transition economics, delivery governance and auditable progress should be repeatable. The first-year case must remain within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile portfolio, cash, customer and people assumptions across three quarters. Priority issues must close by approved dates with independent proof, while severe escalations may not remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Percentage of material commitments linked to funded interventions and accountable owners.
• Transition and affordability outcomes by product and customer cohort.
• Capital withdrawn or redirected when evidence fails agreed gates.
• Accuracy, lineage and assurance of external progress claims.
• Retention of nine in ten critical people and ready-now cover for seven in ten direct-report roles.
• Quantified improvement in embedding transition commitments in capital decisions.

The person

You are an EVP Sustainability, Transition Officer or ESG Director with 18–22 years in financial services or another capital-intensive regulated sector. You have exercised enterprise authority across functions and markets, with outcomes visible in investment, customers or controlled risk.

Your accountable P&L, portfolio, budget or book has been at least CHF 2,500 million, and you have led no fewer than 120 people. You can evidence a transition commitment that changed a product or capital choice and remained effective for two reporting periods. Disclosure experience without operating consequences is insufficient.

You understand the limits of portfolio proxies and can communicate uncertainty without weakening action. You are prepared to reject an attractive claim when customer or data evidence is inadequate.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is CHF 320,000–430,000 plus annual incentive. The permanent appointment is onsite in Zurich, supports international relocation and allows notice up to six months. Final mix reflects scope and current remuneration.

Confidentiality

The client will be named only after an initial fit discussion under mutual confidentiality. Composite facts and commitments cannot be used to triangulate the listed organisation.