MitchelLake Group — Talent for Innovation
Est. 2001·3,000+ placements · six offices · four regions

MitchelLake · Cross-Border Expansion

Executive Search for Cross-Border Expansion

The first leaders in a new market decide whether the expansion works. MitchelLake builds leadership across borders, from first-in-market executives to Country Managers, Regional MDs and the teams that scale a new geography. Across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, since 2001.

Companies call this different things. International expansion, global expansion, market entry, regional growth. The label changes with the boardroom and the leadership problem does not: someone has to establish the business in a market where the brand means nothing yet, then scale it. That is the search we run, whether the move is US expansion out of Sydney, APAC expansion out of London, or a European build run from New York.

Growth and expansion leadership across 45 cities in 21 countries (US 12 cities vs Australia 7, the US-exceeds-home-market proof point for the AU→US corridor).

Into North America

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US market entry and the commercial build behind it, the revenue, product and operating leaders that turn an offshore success into a US business.

Into APAC & Asia

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Regional and country leadership across Asia Pacific, from a Singapore or Hong Kong regional base to first hires in Japan, Vietnam and the ASEAN markets.

Into Australia

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The Country Managers and launch teams that have opened Australia for the world's technology companies, the first hire that decides whether the market works.

Into UK & Europe

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Commercial and market-entry leadership into the UK and continental Europe for companies scaling across borders.

How we think about market entry

MitchelLake has appointed first-in-market and regional leaders for technology companies expanding into the United States, including Airlock Digital, WINR, Splitit and Longtail UX.

MitchelLake has opened the Australian market for global technology companies, including Square, Etsy, WeWork, Optimizely, Dropbox and DoorDash.

MitchelLake has built regional leadership across Asia Pacific, including SEEK's CTO for Asia in Hong Kong, Endava's business development leadership for South East Asia, and Deliveroo's APAC headquarters leadership in Singapore.

Expansion leadership is a system, not a single hire: the first-in-market executive, the country and regional leadership behind them, and the commercial, product and operating team that turns market entry into market scale. We have built that layer for companies moving in every direction, Australian companies into the US, US and UK companies into Asia Pacific and Australia, and European companies across their own borders. See the Australia-to-US corridor for the pattern in depth.

The hiring window is consistent enough to plan against. Across the geographic-expansion signals we track, the peak executive-hiring window opens 12 to 18 months after the public commitment: the leadership build lags the announcement rather than accompanying it. Six offices sit across the corridors our clients expand along, and we have worked them in both directions, ASEAN leadership builds for global companies entering Southeast Asia, US-into-ANZ localisation for global fintechs, and global CEO searches for ASX-listed companies going international.

Related reading: NEXTDC's $720M Malaysia move, our read.