FTSE 150 Client - Chief Customer Experience Officer Appointment

This confidential client is a global omni-channel retailer. Listed in the FTSE 250 and headquartered in London, the business serves more than one million customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Operating in a fragmented market valued at approximately £400bn, they hold less than 2% market share globally. 

As part of this next phase of transformation and growth, the CEO retained Princedale to appoint a Chief Customer Experience Officer (CCXO). They wanted a global executive search that looked beyond the immediate competitor landscape with a firm that intricately understands what real customer experience leadership looks like. People who deliver real results in what can be a difficult remit.

The role would unify global marketing, customer engagement, digital commerce and data-driven insight — ensuring they serves customers faster, more reliably and at the right price point.

Strategic Context

The newly created CCXO role would lead this agenda across the Group. In the first 12–18 months, priorities included:

• Driving targeted customer growth and increasing share of wallet
• Unifying customer journeys across multiple acquired brands and businesses
• Extracting value from newly implemented digital platforms and customer data
• Stabilising and leading the global digital and CX organisation following leadership transition

The role also owned global marketing and brand strategy, overseeing a marketing investment of more than £75m while aligning regional execution and performance.

Success required a leader capable of balancing digital innovation with the realities of a large global sales organisation and complex omnichannel customer interactions.

Defining the Leadership Profile

Candidates needed to demonstrate:

• Deep expertise in digital commerce, customer experience and data-driven marketing
• Leadership across large-scale omnichannel environments
• The ability to influence across a global matrix organisation
• Credibility with both digital-first teams and traditional commercial leaders

Importantly, the CEO encouraged Princedale to look beyond traditional competitors, recognising that some of the most advanced customer strategies exist within high engagement consumer businesses.

The search therefore intentionally included leaders from retail, consumer and digital-first organisations.

Mapping the Global Talent Market

Princedale conducted an extensive global mapping across the UK, Europe and the United States, covering:

• FTSE 100 and 250 companies
• European and US listed Retailers
• High-volume private $bn omnichannel retailers
• Global FMCG businesses
• Private equity-backed product companies

The research also drew on Princedale’s network of more than 15,000 digital, ecommerce, customer and marketing leaders globally.

In total, approximately 420 senior executives were mapped across customer, digital and marketing leadership roles.

From Longlist to Shortlist

Within six weeks, more than 425 senior leaders had been assessed, making this one of the most comprehensive leadership mappings undertaken by the firm.

Evaluation focused not only on functional capability, but also leadership character, influence and cultural fit within our client’s global matrix organisation. Ru interviewed the top 2%, and recommended the top 6 individuals, 3 from the US and 3 from UK/Europe.

Delivering the Appointment

Through this rigorous global search, our client appointed a world class leader with the experience, commercial acumen and leadership presence to accelerate its customer-centric transformation. Someone based in the UK, but that was relocating to the US, so our client hired them there. A wonderful fit both technically and personally.

Another thorough search delivered and ideal fit found.

If we can help you with a chief or SVP leadership appointment in customer, marketing, digital or commercial do get in touch for an exploratory conversation. letstalk@princedale.co

Princedale.