Executive Search Success Story: Placing the First Chief Data Officer for a South Florida Consumer Products and Retail Brand

How JRG Partners executed a confidential Chief Data Officer search that equipped a Boca Raton-headquartered consumer products and retail brand with the enterprise data leadership required to unify fragmented customer, sales, and supply chain data, establish data governance, and build the analytics foundation for AI-driven growth.

The Challenge

A Boca Raton consumer products and retail brand selling through its own stores, e-commerce, and national wholesale accounts had grown to $450M in revenue with customer, sales, inventory, and marketing data scattered across more than a dozen systems. Leadership wanted to pursue AI-driven personalization and demand forecasting but recognized that no reliable data foundation existed. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening their growth objectives:

• No single view of the customer across retail, e-commerce, and wholesale channels
• Conflicting sales and inventory reports from finance, operations, and marketing
• Demand forecasting driven by spreadsheets, causing stockouts and excess inventory
• Growing privacy compliance exposure across consumer data collected in multiple states
• AI initiatives stalled because underlying data could not be trusted
• No executive accountable for data as an enterprise asset

Recognizing that AI ambitions would fail without data leadership, the CEO and ownership created the company’s first Chief Data Officer position, reporting to the CEO, with a mandate to build governance, unify data platforms, and deliver customer analytics. The mandate also included a VP of Customer Analytics and a Director of Data Governance. The company required an executive search partner with direct access to consumer and retail data leaders who had built enterprise data functions from the ground up.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Chief Data Officer Search Specialization

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice for Chief Data Officer and Chief Data & AI Officer searches, with a clear understanding of how the role differs from CIO, CTO, and analytics leadership positions and how to evaluate candidates on governance, platform, and business impact.

Consumer Products and Retail Expertise

With deep experience recruiting leadership for consumer packaged goods, retail, and food and beverage companies, JRG Partners understood the omnichannel data challenges and commercial priorities the new executive would face.

South Florida Headquarters

Based in Boca Raton, JRG Partners brought direct knowledge of the local executive market and relocation dynamics, supporting both regional sourcing and national candidates open to South Florida.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Role Definition & Data Maturity Assessment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, CFO, and heads of marketing and operations to assess the company’s data maturity, define the Chief Data Officer’s authority over systems and governance, and set first-year priorities aligned with commercial objectives.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting data leaders at national retailers, consumer brands, e-commerce platforms, and enterprise data organizations. Over 270 executive profiles were systematically assessed for enterprise data function builds and omnichannel analytics delivery.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to executives with a documented history of establishing data governance, unifying customer data across channels, and delivering forecasting and personalization results in consumer businesses. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented a data strategy and first-year roadmap to the executive team and ownership, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified data and commercial outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 270+ data, analytics, and AI executive profiles mapped across consumer products, retail, and e-commerce.
• Placed the company’s first Chief Data Officer in 53 days with authority over governance, platforms, and analytics.
• Consolidated data from more than a dozen systems into a unified customer data platform.
• Reduced stockouts by 27% and excess inventory by $6M through data-driven demand planning.
• De-risked privacy compliance exposure through enterprise data governance.
• Built a three-role data leadership structure spanning strategy, customer analytics, and governance.