I ask before I assume.
I prefer understanding the real business problem before jumping to a solution.
About Lynn
Commercial judgement built through products,markets and businesses from the ground up.
I have spent more than two decades working across consumer products, retail, sourcing, commercial strategy and new-business building — across Europe, China and Asia-Pacific.
20+ yearsCommercial and consumer business experience
6 countriesLived and worked internationally
10+ categoriesHardline and softline consumer products
100+ suppliersWorked with and developed across global supply markets
The career behind the judgement
I tend to do my best work when the answer is not obvious yet.
My career has rarely followed a neat functional path. I started in retail buying and category management, moved into global product development and sourcing, and later into portfolio strategy, regional commercial work and new-business building.
What has remained consistent is the kind of challenge I am usually drawn into: something new needs to be built, an existing model is no longer working, different functions are pulling in different directions, or the business needs to make an important decision without a clear answer yet.
Over the years, that has meant building new product businesses from zero, creating functions that did not previously exist, rebuilding supplier ecosystems, developing new propositions for strategic customers, and leading complex product programmes across brands, markets and functions.
I am comfortable working at both ends of the problem. I can discuss long-term direction, investment priorities and business models with senior leaders, but I also stay close to the practical details — products, suppliers, costs, teams, timelines and what it will actually take to make something work.
I have lived and worked across six countries, with experience spanning Europe, North Asia, Southeast Asia and businesses serving the US market. That has made me particularly comfortable operating between different cultures, functions and ways of thinking.
I tend to work in a direct, curious and down-to-earth way — asking questions until the real problem becomes clearer, connecting issues that may initially look separate, and then helping people find a practical path forward.
For me, strategy is only useful when it leads to better decisions and can survive contact with the real business.
How I work
Strategic thinking, grounded in execution.
I connect the dots.
Product, customer, margin, sourcing, organisation and execution are rarely separate problems.
I stay practical.
I enjoy strategy, but I am equally comfortable getting into the detail when that is what moves the business forward.
I am comfortable with ambiguity.
Many of the most valuable things I have worked on started without a clear playbook.
Selected business cases
Building businesses, products, supply ecosystems and the systems behind them.
Much of my career has involved stepping into situations where the answer was not already defined — building something new, solving a commercial constraint, or creating the structure needed to move a business forward.
Here are a few examples from my career.
01Build a business
Built a new consumer business from the ground up
A DTC consumer business was expanding beyond its established core, but the new business required a different product strategy, operating model, supplier ecosystem and organisational capability.
I helped build the business from the ground up — defining the 3–5 year product and category roadmap, portfolio architecture, commercial logic, operating processes, team structure, roles and responsibilities, and multi-country supplier ecosystem.
Alongside the longer-term build, I led the day-to-day commercialisation required to keep the business moving — coordinating cross-functional teams and suppliers to deliver new product launches each quarter.
02Transform a supply base
Turned an uncompetitive supply base into a stronger commercial platform
An established textile supply base was becoming less competitive on cost, quality and capability, limiting both product development and future customer opportunities.
I led a global sourcing programme covering supply-market mapping, country and supplier comparison, sampling, capability assessment, supplier selection, negotiation and ongoing vendor management — coordinating a sourcing function that did not directly report to me.
The new sourcing solution reduced pricing by around 15% while improving product quality, supported a €4–5M strategic customer win, and became the supply platform for a collection subsequently commercialised across multiple customers.
03Create a commercial opportunity
Created a new proposition when the existing portfolio could no longer win
A strategic customer’s future plans could no longer be supported by the company’s existing portfolio.
Instead of reshaping an existing offer, I went back to the customer’s consumer base, commercial objectives and unmet needs to identify a new opportunity.
I led the work from market research and concept development through product definition, quality, sourcing, development and commercial proposal, creating a proposition the company had never offered before.
The new concept ultimately secured a ~1.5M customer programme.
04Lead through transformation
Built a global portfolio strategy function during major organisational change
The business was going through significant leadership and organisational turbulence, with multiple senior leaders leaving and responsibilities shifting across the organisation. Several strategic initiatives existed largely on paper, while ownership, processes and decision-making had become unclear.
I stepped in to take responsibility for the emerging Global Portfolio Strategy function and built it from the ground up — defining the business problems it needed to solve, its mandate, team structure and responsibilities, portfolio planning process, decision funnel and management governance.
The function created a common view across commercial priorities, future product investment, project pipelines, resources and portfolio decisions, helping the organisation maintain continuity and minimise the commercial disruption created by a major period of leadership and structural change.
End-to-end product leadership
Across my earlier career, I led end-to-end consumer product programmes involving global brands including Disney, Jamie Oliver and Villeroy & Boch, coordinating design, sourcing, suppliers, sales and logistics from initial concept through development, production and commercialisation.
Individual programmes ranged from hundreds of thousands to several million in value, across multiple hardline and softline consumer-product categories.
Let’s talk
Tell me your challenge.
You do not need a perfect brief or a fully defined project.
If the problem feels complex, interconnected, or you are simply not sure where to start, that is fine.
We can begin with a conversation — clarify the challenge, explore the options and see what the right next step could be.