SENIOR COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR - Kuwait & Iraq

Reporting To: Chief Business Officer & President

ROLE PURPOSE

The Senior Director - Kuwait & Iraq is responsible for driving sustainable, profitable growth across our client's two largest markets. The role extends beyond traditional sales leadership and requires identifying, developing and executing growth opportunities through commercial innovation, strategic customer development, portfolio expansion, revenue growth management, and business transformation.

The role holder is expected to challenge conventional thinking, bring fresh ideas to the business, leverage technology and data analytics, embrace Al-enabled ways o f working, and build a culture of accountability, execution excellence and continuous improvement.

The position will provide leadership to the Kuwait and Iraq commercial organisations and ensure both markets achieve their growth, profitability, market share and capability development objectives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Business Leadership & Growth

• Lead the commercial performance of Kuwait and Iraq and ensure delivery of volume, revenue, profitability and market share objectives.

• Develop and execute short and long-term growth strategies for both markets.

• Identify new revenue streams, customer opportunities, business models and routes to market.

• Establish a culture of commercial ownership, proactive problem-solving and execution excellence.

• Ensure business decisions are driven by facts, data and clear commercial rationale.

Kuwait Business Development

• Develop new growth platforms to reinvigorate business performance and accelerate market growth.

• Create and execute a comprehensive strategy for HORECA and other underdeveloped channels.

• Improve the effectiveness o f innovation and ensure new product launches generate

• meaningful incremental growth.

• Work cross-functionally to identify solutions to pricing, regulatory and market access challenges.

• Strengthen customer partnerships and develop strategic growth plans with key accounts.

• Drive improvements in distribution, shelf presence, execution quality and customer engagement.

• Identify emerging consumer trends and convert them into actionable growth opportunities.

Iraq Business Development

• Develop and execute plans to increase revenue per litre and improve overall business profitability.

• Expand portfolio participation and identify category extension opportunities.

• Leverage the strength of our client's brand to create new revenue streams and business opportunities.

• Strengthen route-to-market effectiveness and distributor capability.

• Improve distribution reach, execution standards and customer penetration.

• Develop medium and long-term plans to accelerate our client's growth and market position in Iraq.

• Continuously evaluate market dynamics, competitive activity and consumer trends to identify opportunities ahead of competitors.

Commercial Excellence

• Drive improvements i n pricing strategy, trade investment effectiveness and customer profitability.

• Improve forecasting accuracy and strengthen commercial planning capabilities.

• Lead annual business planning and regular business review processes.

• Ensure disciplined performance management supported by meaningful KPls and reporting.

• Establish a culture of accountability and follow-through across both organisations.

• Digital Transformation, Data & Al

• Champion the use of technology to improve business performance and decision-making.

• Leverage data analytics t o identify growth opportunities, improve customer management and optimise resource allocation.

• Promote the adoption o f Artificial Intelligence and digital tools t o increase productivity,

• improve workflows, enhance reporting quality and reduce operating costs.

• Drive automation and simplification initiatives that improve organisational effectiveness.

• Build a data-driven culture where decisions are supported by insights rather than assumptions.

Health & Wellness Growth Agenda

• Support our client's strategic ambition to grow its portfolio of healthier products.

• Ensure the successful commercialisation and expansion of their specialised healthy products portfolio.
• Work closely with Marketing, Research & Innovation, and Sales teams to increase consumer adoption of healthier products.
• Identify channel, customer and portfolio opportunities that accelerate growth of health and wellness categories.
• Champion consumer-centric solutions that align with evolving health and nutrition trends.

Leadership & Organization Development

• Lead, coach and develop senior commercial leaders across Kuwait and Iraq.

• Build a culture of accountability, ownership and high performance.

• Develop succession plans and strengthen organisational capability.

• Encourage collaboration across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, R&l and other functions.

• Ensure performance issues and growth opportunities are addressed promptly and effectively.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Engineering o r a related discipline.

• MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification is strongly preferred.

• Minimum 15 years of progressive commercial leadership experience within FMCG, Food & Beverage, Consumer Goods, or Dairy.
• Demonstrated success managing large and complex businesses with full accountability for growth and profitability.
• Strong understanding of strategic customer management, distributor management, route-to-market development and revenue growth management.

• Proven track record of identifying and delivering new growth opportunities.

• Strong financial and analytical capability with the ability to translate insights into action.

• Experience managing diverse, high-performing teams.

• Experience in Middle Eastern markets, with strong knowledge of Kuwait and Iraq (mandatory)

• Fluent in English and Arabic.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will think like a business builder rather than a traditional sales manager, with the confidence to challenge the status quo and pursue new growth opportunities. They will combine strong commercial, strategic and financial acumen with a highly action-oriented, execution-focused approach. They will embrace technology, digital transformation and AI as business enablers, and champion data-driven decision-making. A genuine understanding of consumer needs and evolving consumption trends will be essential, alongside a passion for supporting our client's ambition to lead in health and wellness-oriented products. The individual will also build high-performing teams, develop future leaders, and demonstrate resilience, ownership and accountability for results.