Manager, Regional Portfolio, Living Science Care (Confidential, don't post)

Introduction / Context
Monroe Consulting Group, an Executive Recruitment firm, is partnering with an organisation in the Consumer industry to hire a Manager, Regional Portfolio of Living Science Care. This opportunity is based in Southeast Asia and offers the opportunity to drive regional portfolio growth across Personal Care and Home Care markets while working closely with commercial, technical and marketing teams.
Position Overview
Lead the commercial growth, portfolio strategy and lifecycle management of the Living Science Care portfolio across Southeast Asia and South Korea.
Drive market adoption, principal partnerships and business development initiatives that contribute directly to regional revenue growth and portfolio performance.
Key Responsibilities
1. Portfolio Strategy and Strategic Marketing

• Own the regional portfolio strategy for assigned Care product lines, covering actives, functional ingredients and specialty chemistries across Personal Care and Home Care.
• Join the annual January planning cycle with the reporting manager, Regional Marketing and Regional Technical to set product and application focus areas per country, based on market development status and local market conditions.
• Translate the annual plan into country OKRs together with Local Leaders, and track execution from February to November with a December wrap up of results and improvement points.
• Conduct market and trend research to identify growth applications, current gaps and future expansion opportunities by country and by application.
• Map the competition landscape and maintain the product mix, identifying strategic products and setting pricing positions against competing offers.
• Define target customer segments per country (multinational, regional and local brand owners, contract manufacturers) and align them with Client Solutions coverage.
• Contribute to the annual sales target, marketing cost budget and portfolio P&L for assigned lines.

2. Sales Development and Key Projects

• Make joint customer visits with Local Client Solutions teams to promote portfolio solutions and build technical credibility with R&D, purchasing and marketing stakeholders.
• Drive key projects end to end, from opportunity identification, technical alignment and sampling, through proposal development, to commercial closure and repeat business.
• Support Client Solutions teams in solution positioning, value proposition articulation, claims support and application discussions.
• Lead customer trial initiatives with Regional Technical, including formulation support, prototypes and benchmark studies.
• Maintain full pipeline visibility in CRM, with stage discipline, forecast accuracy and lead to win tracking per product line and country.
• Provide regular project updates, pipeline reviews and forecasts to the reporting manager, including key risks, growth opportunities and resource needs.

3. Product Management and Lifecycle

• Assess market potential, positioning and growth opportunities for new and existing products.
• Run a structured new supplier and new product evaluation process for all markets in scope, covering technical fit, regulatory status, pricing competitiveness, supply reliability and commercial potential, so that evaluation is not dependent on any single individual.
• Lead go or no go recommendations for new products and principals, supported by a clear business case.
• Own product readiness and launch execution: technical dossiers, regulatory documentation, sample stock, price lists, sales training and launch communication.
• Run quarterly portfolio performance reviews using sales data, gross profit, pipeline analysis and forecast accuracy, and drive corrective actions.
• Recommend termination or repositioning of underperforming products and manage the exit with principals and customers.

4. Principal Management

• Act as the regional point of contact for assigned principals and build relationships at commercial, technical and management levels.
• Align principal expectations, annual targets, marketing support, cost share for events and technical resources.
• Communicate the annual plan and suggested cost share to principals in advance, together with Regional Marketing, so principals can plan their participation.
• Manage principal engagement across online and offline channels, including business reviews, joint customer visits and principal participation in seminars, workshops and exhibitions.
• Deliver structured principal reporting covering sales performance, pipeline, market feedback and competitive intelligence.
• Cascade principal updates to Client Solutions, Marketing, Technical and Management.
• Implement and maintain the internal principal management process: communication cadence, reporting standards, agreement and territory compliance, and issue escalation.
• Identify and onboard new principals that fill strategic portfolio gaps.

5. Marketing and Technical Alignment

• Provide product and application input to Regional Marketing for product promotional content, formulation content and new principal agency announcements.
• Define product themes and principal participation for seminars, workshops and exhibitions.
• Work with Regional Technical on formulation concepts, prototypes and application data that support portfolio priorities.
• Ensure marketing sourced leads for assigned products are followed up and converted through the Client Solutions teams.

6. Team Capability and Governance

• Coach Local Client Solutions teams on product knowledge, application selling and value based pricing.
• Build product training materials and run onboarding for new products and new team members.
• Ensure regulatory and compliance readiness with Regulatory teams, covering both global and regional frameworks.

Key Requirements
Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Life Science, Pharmacy or a related field.
• Master's degree or MBA preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of commercial experience in the personal care and home care raw material and ingredient business, on the supplier or distributor side.
• Proven track record in portfolio or product management, key account development, or business development with principals or suppliers, ideally in a distribution or solution provider model.
• Regional experience across Southeast Asia and Korea, with knowledge of customer structures in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Korea.
• Proven leadership experience in managing cross-functional teams and delivering commercial results through influence.

Technical / Functional Expertise

• Strong understanding of personal care and home care formulation, including actives, emollients, surfactants, rheology modifiers and functional ingredients.
• Knowledge of global and regional regulatory frameworks for personal care and home care ingredients, including EU Cosmetics Regulation, REACH, US MoCRA and TSCA, China NMPA, Korea MFDS, ASEAN Cosmetic Directive, Indonesia BPOM and halal (BPJPH).
• Familiarity with natural and sustainability standards such as COSMOS, ISO 16128 and RSPO.
• Awareness of market trends in natural, sustainable and biotech-derived ingredients.
• Portfolio Management (Product + Supplier).
• Business Strategy & Growth Planning.
• Operational Excellence & Execution.
• Strategic Direction & Decision Making.
• CRM pipeline management, forecasting and lead-to-win tracking.
• Product lifecycle management, supplier evaluation and principal management.
• Regional commercial planning, portfolio P&L management and pricing strategy development.

Soft Skills & Leadership Competencies

• Strong leadership and cross-functional stakeholder management capabilities.
• Ability to influence teams and drive commercial results without direct authority.
• Excellent strategic planning and execution skills.
• Strong communication and relationship-building abilities across commercial, technical and management audiences.
• People, Culture & Capability Development.
• Demonstrates agility, teamwork, respectfulness, integrity and proactiveness.
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving and continuous improvement mindset.
• Ability to manage multiple regional stakeholders, priorities and projects in a dynamic business environment.