Appointing a Director of Operational Excellence to Enable Rapid Production Scale Up in Canada

Renowned for its leadership in skincare, the organisation operates multiple production facilities worldwide, with a flagship site in Canada responsible for producing one of its highest demand products. Following a period of strong commercial growth and a significant surge in demand, the business needed to rapidly scale production throughput and effectively double output. Achieving this required a step change in operational efficiency and performance beyond what the existing team had previously delivered. The company engaged Pacific International to recruit a Director of Operational Excellence, an experienced leader with a proven track record of driving Overall Equipment Effectiveness above 80 percent and the capability to influence both culture and operational discipline on the shop floor.

A further complexity was the site’s location in a predominantly French speaking region of Canada. Many operators and technical staff communicate primarily in French, making language fluency essential for effective leadership, engagement and collaboration.

Through a focused strategy that combined university networks, an activated referral base and targeted outreach, we identified a high potential candidate with strong operational credentials, fluency in French and close proximity to the site. The individual brought broad cross sector experience and a strong record of leading packaging operations with high OEE performance.

Since joining, the candidate has delivered significant impact and is viewed as a key asset to the business. He has been entrusted with hiring authority and has expressed a desire to continue partnering with Pacific International on future recruitment needs. We have maintained a strong relationship with both the local leadership team and the wider European stakeholder group.