Group Global Chief People Officer - Consumer Goods

Group Chief People Officer (CPO)

Role Overview

We are supporting a fast-growing international B2B group in the appointment of a Group Chief People Officer (CPO).

Reporting directly to the Group CEO and serving as a key member of the executive leadership team, the CPO will be responsible for shaping and executing the Group’s global people and organization strategy, strengthening organizational capabilities, and building a high-performing international leadership and talent platform to support the company’s next stage of growth.

This is not a traditional functional HR leadership role. We are looking for a business-driven and commercially minded people leader who can work closely with the CEO and senior leadership team, translate business priorities into organizational solutions, and lead the organization through continued international expansion and transformation.

Key Responsibilities

1. People Strategy & Organization

• Translate the Group’s business strategy into a pragmatic global people and organization agenda.
• Act as a trusted strategic partner to the CEO and executive leadership team on organization, leadership and talent matters.
• Lead organizational diagnosis and design, continuously improving organizational structure, decision effectiveness, accountability and agility.
• Stay close to the business and provide targeted people solutions to key commercial, operational and technical functions.
• Lead the people and organization agenda during major business transformation and organizational change.

2. Global Talent & Leadership

• Build and continuously strengthen the Group’s approach to identifying, developing, motivating and retaining critical talent across international markets.
• Develop leadership capabilities and succession pipelines for key management positions.
• Lead the attraction and deployment of selected senior and business-critical talent internationally.
• Navigate complex cross-cultural management challenges and strengthen collaboration between headquarters and regional teams.
• Build a sustainable international leadership pipeline to support the Group’s long-term growth.

3. Organization & Culture

• Evolve and embed a performance-oriented, customer-focused, innovative and collaborative culture across a geographically diverse organization.
• Strengthen leadership effectiveness and organizational capabilities as the business continues to scale.
• Support the evolution of the organization toward a more international, professional and high-performance operating model.
• Drive major organizational transformation initiatives and effectively manage resistance to change.

4. HR Infrastructure & Governance

• Shape global compensation, benefits and incentive frameworks, balancing Group-wide consistency with appropriate local flexibility.
• Enhance HR processes, digital platforms and people analytics to improve decision quality and operational efficiency.
• Continuously improve global HR governance and operating mechanisms.
• Ensure compliant people operations across international markets and proactively manage employment-related risks.

Candidate Profile

• 15+ years of progressive HR leadership experience, including significant experience as the senior HR leader for a group, major business unit or comparably complex organization.
• Strong and credible career track record with evidence of sustained organizational impact.
• Substantial end-to-end international HR leadership experience, including organization building, talent management, cross-cultural leadership and localization across overseas markets.
• Strong understanding of B2B business models, with the ability to understand the commercial drivers behind the organization and translate them into people priorities.
• Proven expertise in organizational development, organization design, talent assessment, succession planning and leadership development.
• Demonstrated experience leading major organizational change, business transformation or organization building during periods of rapid growth.
• Experience in an international, technology-driven, innovation-led or specialized product/service environment would be advantageous.
• Exposure to technically sophisticated, quality-sensitive or professionally specialized industries would be beneficial.
• Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder-management capabilities in both Chinese and English.
• Master’s degree or equivalent advanced education in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology or a related discipline is preferred.

The original role specifically requires extensive end-to-end overseas team management experience and strong B2B understanding; I would keep these two as hard requirements rather than anonymizing them away.

Leadership Attributes

• Business-driven — thinks beyond the HR function and connects people decisions directly to business outcomes.
• Strategic yet hands-on — comfortable moving between CEO-level discussions and execution on critical organizational priorities.
• Mature, pragmatic and intellectually sharp, with strong judgment in complex business environments.
• Strong international perspective and genuine understanding of cross-cultural leadership.
• Strong change leadership capability, with the courage and influence to challenge the status quo.
• High level of integrity, accountability and resilience.
• Enterprise mindset and CEO-level perspective — able to think about the organization as a whole rather than through a purely functional HR lens.

Search Context

The appointment is part of the Group’s continued international development and organizational evolution. The successful candidate will have meaningful scope to shape the company’s future organization, leadership platform and people strategy.

Further company and role details will be shared with shortlisted candidates on a confidential basis.