Commercial Strategy & Insights Director

The Commercial Strategy & Insights team at Russell Reynolds Associates enables commercial growth, insight development, business planning, knowledge-sharing, and execution across the firm’s hubs, sectors and capabilities. The Global Commercial Strategy & Insights Leader, Asia Pacific will lead the APAC CS&I function and act as a strategic business partner to the APAC Hub Portfolio Leader and APAC senior leadership team. In addition, the role will serve as APAC Operations Lead /Chief of Staff to the APAC Hub Portfolio Leader, helping navigate the day-to-day needs of the APAC portfolio, increase leadership effectiveness and drive positive business and commercial outcomes. The role will help shape and execute the region’s strategy, insights agenda, go-to-market priorities and transformation journey. Sitting at the centre of the APAC business, the Leader will connect commercial, financial, people and operational perspectives to help leadership understand performance, identify priorities and opportunities, and translate strategy into execution. They will work closely with Hub Leaders and regional and global functional leaders to drive alignment and follow-through across the region. This is a senior regional leadership role sitting at the intersection of Chief of Staff leadership, strategy, insights, commercial enablement and execution. The successful candidate will bring a strong combination of commercial acumen, strategic judgment, execution discipline and stakeholder credibility. The Leader will manage, develop and mentor the APAC CS&I team, while also contributing to the global CS&I leadership group. They will support collaboration across industries and capabilities, contribute to cross-CS&I initiatives and act as a culture carrier for the function across the firm. Chief of Staff and Strategic Business Partnering · Act as Chief of Staff / APAC Operations Lead, strategic advisor and thought partner to the APAC Hub Portfolio Leader and APSLT, helping set priorities, navigate day-to-day portfolio needs and focus leadership attention on the issues and opportunities that matter most. · Work with the HPL and Hub Leaders to develop Hub-specific priorities and roadmaps, providing supporting data, analysis and recommendations. · Build trusted relationships with Hub Leaders and regional and global functional leaders, including Finance, People, Client Services, L&D and Marketing, acting as a key connector across the APAC leadership ecosystem. · Maintain a strong pulse on APAC’s Hubs and organisational environment, identifying emerging business, people and cultural themes and ensuring appropriate visibility and action. · Help ensure Hub priorities advance the strategies established by the Firm’s Industry and Capability teams and support culture and connectivity across APAC. Strategy and business enablement · Act as a strategic business partner to the APAC Hub Portfolio Leader and APSLT, bringing an insight-led and commercially grounded perspective to regional priorities, decisions, trade-offs and execution. · Helpshape and execute APAC’s strategy, insights agenda, go-to-market priorities and transformation journey. · Translate global transformation priorities into practical APAC plans, workstreams, milestones and ownership. · Partner with APAC leadership to identify strategic focus areas, growth opportunities, client priorities, sector / capability agendas, account strategies and major pursuit priorities. Develop & coordinate cross-functional initiatives to drive growth & improve performance across the APAC hub portfolio · Partner with the HPL, Finance, People and Hub Leaders to monitor APAC business performance and the KPIs required to drive desired Hub behaviours and outcomes, identifying where course correction is required. · Synthesize financial, commercial and people data to identify improvement areas and opportunities and provide clear recommendations to leadership across areas such as Winning Business, business development, consultant performance, client focus, resourcing, hiring and turnover. Commercial activation and client impact · Build a structured approach to gathering, synthesizing and distributing market and business intelligence to support opportunity spotting, client coverage and resource planning. · Develop and maintain high-quality commercial enablement and knowledge assets, including account insights, playbooks, client-ready content, case studies, pitch materials, credentials and market insights. · Drive cross-industry and cross-capability collaboration, campaign activation and multi-channel business development initiatives to strengthen client engagement and position RRA as a leading advisor in APAC. · Build strong relationships with global CS&I leaders and specialist teams so APAC can access deeper industry, capability and functional expertise when needed. · Represent APAC priorities, market context and stakeholder needs back to global CS&I to ensure global initiatives are relevant, practical and responsive to the region. Regional leadership and governance · Support APAC HPL, HLs and APSLT with governance, planning and reporting mechanisms that make priorities clear, keep progress visible and ensure follow-through. · Own the operating cadence for key APAC leadership forums, including agenda setting, content and analysis, meeting preparation, decision and action tracking, and follow-through. · Work with the HPL to develop the frameworks, analysis and materials required for business and performance reviews with Hub Leaders. · Lead content development and execution for leadership meetings and offsites, including synthesizing discussions and ensuring agreed actions are progressed. · Monitor progress, risks, dependencies and barriers across key regional priorities, surfacing where leadership intervention may be required. · Drive content creation and analysis for HPL and leadership communications, coordinating inputs from relevant functions as required. · Support communications and sta…