Strategic Operations Director

An experienced strategic and operational leader with nearly 20 years' experience helping creative and design-led businesses turn ambitious ideas into commercially successful products and experiences. With a background spanning luxury fashion and automotive, they bring a great mix of creative understanding, commercial awareness and operational expertise. They're particularly good at working alongside founders and senior leadership teams, bringing clarity and structure to complex challenges while making sure the original creative vision isn't lost along the way.

• Established an international automotive design hub of more than 150 people across the UK and China in just eight months, bringing together creative, technical and operational teams.

• Played a key role in delivering a production vehicle in 25 months against an original 48-month target, while reducing design operating costs by approximately 60%.

• Worked closely with executive leadership across a global creative organisation of 850 people, improving decision-making, governance and operational effectiveness.

• Led product development and production teams within luxury fashion, achieving gross margins of approximately 70% through smarter sourcing and product development.

• Improved product range efficiency by reducing the number of styles by 25%, allowing greater focus on commercially successful products without compromising the brand.

• Supported founder-led businesses with everything from financial planning, pricing and supplier relationships through to brand development and international growth opportunities.

They bring a calm, thoughtful and very grounded approach, with a natural ability to connect with both creative and commercially focused people. They're comfortable asking difficult questions, challenging existing thinking and helping businesses work through complex decisions without adding unnecessary layers of process. They're particularly interested in working with ambitious, founder-led or design-driven businesses on an advisory, fractional or interim basis, where they can become a trusted partner to the leadership team and help turn big ideas into something that really works.