Commercial Director

The Company
Our client is a progressive global plastic recycling business with three distinct divisions: (1) Plastic Recycling; (2) Recycled Supply Chain Management; and (3) Recycled & Waste Plastic Feedstock. Their expert global team combine impressive technical knowledge and capability with a passion for recycling and the circular economy. Our client is passionate about transforming waste into a valuable commodity, buying, selling and recycling scrap plastic.
Since our client started on their journey in 2005, they have developed a worldwide presence, serving hundreds of customers in over 50 countries. They have grown a strong, talented team who are highly trained, dedicated and loyal. They are headquartered in Hong Kong with operations and representation in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Turkey, Spain, Netherlands & UK. They operate a factory based in the UK specialising in the collection and recycling of plastic waste generated from industry and manufacturing.
Job Summary
Your role is to build and lead the purchasing and sales team covering the Asia market that will enable us to fulfil our client's mission to become the world’s largest recycled plastics commodities company.
The mission of this role is to deliver profitable, strategic and repeatable growth by moving the region from reactive spot trading towards larger scale accounts that generate contracted business via solution-led commercial execution.
The Commercial Director will own the commercial direction and performance of Asia. This includes developing the regional commercial plan, prioritising strategic verticals, building supplier and buyer relationships, creating account plans, coaching the team, improving deal quality and ensuring the region is aligned with our client’s wider strategy.
This is not a desk-only leadership role. The successful candidate must be able to operate at senior level while staying close to the market, deals, customers, suppliers and team activity. They will be expected to create leverage by making the existing commercial team more focused, more capable and more valuable, rather than simply adding more headcount. This role is expected to actively develop strategic level accounts directly and transform them into long term value generating clients.
A strong career history as a successful salesperson and sales manager, you are a proven leader who has experience building high-performance sales teams in a commodity business.
Role Snapshot
- Core purpose: Lead Asia commercial growth and raise the value created by the existing commercial team.
- Key focus: Strategic accounts, contracted business, vertical focus, team performance, market development and First Choice execution.
- Must avoid: Becoming only a senior salesperson or only a people manager. This role must create scalable commercial leverage.
- Success looks like: Asia has clearer strategic priorities, stronger key accounts, higher-quality pipeline, better deal discipline and more repeatable GP.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Strategy & Regional Commercial Leadership:
- Develop and own the Asia commercial plan in line with our client’s global strategy.
- Translate group strategy into clear priorities for Asia: which verticals, customers, suppliers, countries and materials matter most.
- Focus leadership time and team activity on higher-value opportunities rather than low-return, high-friction trading.
- Set clear expectations for team activity, account development, contracted business and pipeline quality.
- Determine the countries and regions where purchasing and/or sales representation is required on the ground.
- Identify capability gaps and work with Talent to hire only where there is a clear leverage case.
- Use data, commercial intelligence and market feedback to make decisions quickly and change direction when required.
- Lead the team to constantly enhance sales skills, material knowledge and industry knowledge through formal training, coaching and creating a cu