Senior Director Business Development, LAM

Department:                                                                         Business Development

Direct Reporting Line:                                                        MD LAM           

Indirect/secondary reporting line:         

Subsidiary/country:                                                             LAM

Location:                                                                               Panama City                            

GSMS Grade:                                                                        M1                                                      

Personnel Managed:                                                           Yes

Budget Managed:                                                                Yes

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

The Senior Director Business Development is part of the LAM leadership team and plays a pivotal role in the definition of the LAM strategy, gatekeeps its execution and ensures a flawless connection between developing, defining and communicating the strategic directions of the company across the organization, in the region and in communication with global.

This role is the key connector for the LAM regional leadership to ensure consistency and connection across the different functions and the countries of the region. The position leads, incubates and develops x-functional priorities, aligned with the market and global strategic directions while ensuring coordination and alignment across functions and markets aligned with the LAM strategic directions:

• Plays the role of Chief of Staff for the Market MD and is responsible for orchestrating the SLT strategic agenda as well as all Head Office topics;
• Prepare and deliver Board & executive presentations and communications at Market level;
• Own the Holistic LAM Market strategic business plan and 2030 strategy developments, across Categories & Channels, with marketplace and omni commercial priorities in mind to deliver sustainable net sales, profitability, and market share growth for LAM;
• Ensure full alignment of internal and business communication across LAM
• Lead and develop a geographically dispersed team ensuring alignment to the LAM SBP across functions and countries
• Lead and streamlined the centralized LAM Data Intelligence team, with focus of omnichannel and cross-functional intelligence.

Key Responsibilities:

• (E2E Strategy: Planning) - Develop and lead the Regional Strategic Business Planning (2030 SBP) process for the future 2-5 year period.

Steer regional annual strategy review and define yearly market priorities, in close partnership with functional VPs and country GMs.

Identify and coordinate ad-hoc strategic planning activities.

• (E2E Strategy: Head Office) - Support Region Senior Leadership Team (SLT), in facilitating on-going management meetings and leadership operating rhythm, monitoring and reporting business KPIs to key stakeholders.

Own the E2E planning and execution (from ideation to implementation) of the LAM operating rhythm, including events like Leadership Conferences

Develop strategic presentations and business planning documents to Senior Management. Drive the development of executive level presentations (e.g SLT, Board Visits, Townhalls) and reports.  

• (Strategy – Strategy execution) – Lead the annual process of identifying the key initiatives and cross-functional programs and projects directly related to the SBP

Own and govern the LAM strategical and operational project portfolio; ensuring strategy consistency and proper resource allocation

Create Project Management "Center of Excellence" in LAM to implement "Project Management Standards" in LAM, from Demand Management to Project Closure, ensuring Best In Class Execution.         

Be directly involved in the developments/progress of some strategic initiatives by providing deep-dive support to secure quality of execution (according to quality, time and budget)

• (Internal Communication) – Lead the regional strategy of Corporate Communications (internal and external) and Corporate Social Responsibility in alignment with the global, regional and country objectives in Latin America. Lead, develop and implement internal communications strategy ensuring focus on business communication (mission, strategy and key initiatives) and internal communications.

• (Data Intelligence) – Define, lead and coordinate the newly created Data Intelligence team, responsible to unify, analyse, and activate data across all business functions — enabling strategic decision-making, operational excellence, and market responsiveness through integrated insights. Establish the team as the strategic backbone for analytics, enabling the company to move from data to decisions with speed and precision

• (Leadership) Lead team and foster a high-performance culture within the team; develop and retain key talents. Act as a role model in compliance with the Leadership Framework, relevant laws and regulations as well as the adidas Fair Play Code of Conduct and other internal policies

Key Relationships:

• MD and entire LAM Senior Leadership Team (SLT)
• Regional functions, leads and FLM
• Business Development Team LAM (Strategy Execution office and country BD teams)
• Global Teams and Global Corporate Strategy office

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Team player with good interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Strong influential skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong business / financial acumen.
• Ability to navigate within a matrix organization; ability to quickly build trust among all management levels and act as a galvanizer and influencer across the organization.
• High personal impact and communication skills (both verbal and written)
• Ability to communicate strategies to executive level management.
• Excellence in developing engaging presentations (from both quality of content and storytelling perspective)
• Customer service orientation – a focus on user needs.
• Entrepreneurial – proactively defines goal and attacks them with creativity
• Willingness to learn – a genuine interest in learning about all aspects of the business and develop general management competency.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• 12–15 years of relevant business strategy experience across top-tier consulting and global matrix corporations in consumer-centric industries.
• Developed and delivered market and business-level strategies in global, highly matrixed environments.
• Think strategically, synthesize complex situations, and take ownership to drive decisions and results.
• Demonstrated success in driving and achieving ambitious growth targets.
• Communicate, influence, and present effectively to senior executives, stakeholders, and cross-functional leaders.
• Preferred background in the sporting goods or consumer retail industries.
• Lead and develop geographically dispersed, diverse teams for 10+ years.
• Advanced skills in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook), experience with data analytics and intelligence (power BI) a plus.
• Innovative leader, forging a culture of agility and high-performance team
• Fluent in written and spoken English is a must, advanced level in Spanish.