General Manager, Global Supply Chain – International Petroleum Company – Italy

Scenario

Page Executive was retained in Italy by an Asian-headquartered global petroleum company to recruit several positions at executive board level. These roles would entail international responsibility for one of their business units. The company had major production, R&D and operations in Italy, so the position of General Manager – Global Supply Chain would be based in-country for 1-2 years, before moving to south east Asia.

The main focus of the position was to manage multiple company M&As and business integrations and to standardise processes, quality standards and procedures regarding purchasing, logistics, and all aspects of operations. The key challenges of the search were to:

Identify and attract only the leading executives within the market, operating at the most senior level
Ensure significant relevant sector and functional experience
Ensure at least multiregional, ideally global, function management within a major international corporation
The client chose to partner with Page Executive due to the global reach of our company, and our ability to reach and approach top talent. Page Executive also did not have a global agreement with some of the major competitors.

Solution

Page Executive’s key client director in south east Asia deployed a global team to look after the search as a team. Candidates were sourced from northern Europe, the UK, United States, and Asia. Due to the initial location of the role, we focused primarily on the European and Asian markets, specifically northern Europe and UK. We have mapped and targeted the supply chain functions of direct competitors on a pure direct approach basis. The main challenge of the project was to identify candidates with the requested seniority, yet highly motivated to join our client and for the specific role and its challenges.

Outcome

After a weekly progress status report refining a list of 40 long-listed targeted candidates, a short list of international candidates was presented four weeks from project start. After seven weeks, our client flew to Asia and met six candidates who met all the necessary requirements. Two of them were selected for two roles separate to the original brief. The final candidate flew to Asia shortly afterwards to meet the global CEO. The assigned supply chain role was filled after a lengthy process involving international mobility consultants and a tax advisor to define all details of expatriate benefits and the treatment of health, pension, and long term incentives under different regulatory and tax regimes.