Interim & fractional executive · Gulf · Europe · Latin America
Commercial, security, or regional — in a market you don't live in. Interim, full-time, when a role is unfilled and there's a date on it. Fractional, a few days a month, when the market is real and the headcount isn't. 25 years in enterprise technology. 12 in the Gulf.
Limited capacity. Write anyway, I'll reply with realistic timing, in writing.
The problem this solves
You know you need someone senior in that market. You can't justify the headcount until you see revenue, and you can't see revenue without someone senior. Two quarters go by inside that loop. I fill the role while you find out — and I've held versions of all three roles on payroll.
Three roles, one operator
01Pipeline, deals, tenders, channel and partner structure, sales methodology and CRM discipline — and the number itself.
Security posture as a commercial asset. EU AI Act · SDAIA · UAE PDPL · LGPD · NIS2 · GDPR. The compliance ask that decides contracts.
Presence, partners, institutional relationships, local hiring — and the honest verdict on whether the region should exist yet.
Who this is for
If none of them describes yours, the first conversation will be short and I will say so.
Someone left, or the search is open and nobody can tell you when it closes. The function cannot sit unattended until it does. That is interim work.
The market is real enough to need senior attention and not yet real enough to carry a permanent salary. That is fractional work.
Recommendations, a strategy document, a workshop. The number did not move, because nobody in the room was accountable for it afterwards.
An entity, a permanent hire and a regional budget are three decisions you are being asked to make at once, on evidence you do not have. Month one produces the evidence.
Why these three
A company that needs senior leadership in a market before it can justify the permanent organisation. Each role answers one question.
Chief Revenue Officer
Pipeline, deals, tenders, partners. The commercial answer.
Chief Information Security Officer
Posture, governance, the compliance ask that decides the contract.
Country / Regional Manager
Presence, partners, institutions, local operating model — and the verdict.
Buy one. Or take them in sequence: whether the region should exist, whether you can sell, whether customers can buy from you.
The front door
A fixed fee, a defined scope, and a verdict that is allowed to be no. Not a report — the first month of the job, done properly, before either of us commits to the rest of it.
What happens in it
I sit in the role. Real meetings, real accounts, real stakeholders — not a discovery exercise. By the end of it I know whether the role is worth funding and so do you.
What you get
A dated, written verdict with the evidence attached: what the role actually requires, what the market said, and whether filling it permanently is justified yet. Not a template.
What it costs
A fixed fee, quoted plainly in the first conversation, before anything is signed. No day rates, no meter running. The fee is identical whether the verdict is go or stop.
What the month actually looks like
Week 1
The role, the accounts, the stakeholders, the constraints. What the previous occupant was actually measured on, and what stopped them.
Week 2
Customer and partner conversations, in-market. The meetings the role would be taking if it were filled.
Week 3
Whether pipeline forms, whether partners are viable, what the operating model would have to be, what it would cost to run.
Week 4
Continue as interim. Continue as fractional. Change the role. Wait. One of those four, dated and written down.
If the role proves out, I stay in it — interim or fractional, same person, no handoff.
If it doesn't, you get a documented "not yet," and that is half the value. Before you decide, I'm paid the same whether I say go or stop. After you decide, I'm paid like someone who has to make it work. The incentive follows the question. A regional director costs you a search, a relocation package, and twelve months before you know whether the market was ever there. I cost you a month.
Interim or fractional? →The alternatives
| What you are actually buying. | Consultant | Recruiter | Agency | The Tek Atelier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advises | yes | no | yes | yes |
| Tells you whether to hire at all | Sometimes | no | no | yes |
| Does the work | Sometimes | no | yes | yes |
| Carries the number | Rarely | no | no | yes |
| Holds the role on your org chart | no | no | no | yes |
| Paid the same if the answer is no | yes | no | no | yes |
| Hands over when you are ready | no | yes | yes | yes |
Hiring is cheaper than this, right up until the hire is wrong.
None of those figures are mine to publish. They are yours to add up, against a first month that ends in a written answer.
When not to buy it
You need capacity, not leadership.
You already have a working revenue engine abroad. Hire reps. A CRO on top of a machine that runs is an expense, not a fix.
You need a certificate, not a function.
If the ask is an audit delivered by a date, buy an auditor. I lead the function; I do not sign the certificate.
You already have the entity and the team.
Then the regional build is done. What you need is execution support, and that is a cheaper thing to buy than me.
The problem is the product.
If it does not sell at home, it will not sell abroad because someone senior is carrying it. No executive manufactures product-market fit, and I would be an expensive way to find that out.
You have already decided.
If month one exists to ratify a decision you have made, do not buy it. You would be paying a fixed fee for a verdict you intend to ignore, and I would rather you kept the money.
Month one is fixed. It can end in “don’t fill this role yet.” The fee is the same either way.
The six months after
The question I will ask you in the first conversation, and the one the engagement is built to answer.
Month 1
Fixed fee, written verdict.
Months 2–3
Pipeline, partners, posture, whichever the role owns — and the operating rhythm underneath it.
Months 4–6
Once is luck. The measure is whether the second and the third look like the first.
Month 6
Scale it, hire permanently, continue as is, or stop. On evidence, on a date.
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No deck. Tell me which role is open and what has to be true in six months. I'll tell you plainly whether and how I can help — and whether you should be filling it at all.
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