About Robert Cristian
I help complex, multi-site, multi-country businesses recover P&L, restore distressed operations — typically inside 90 to 180-day mandates.
15 years across IT services, aviation, and technology. Recent work:
- Independent Operating Advisor (current): margin-recovery diagnostic for a Bulgaria-based metals trading business — Lean Six Sigma assessment projecting 10–15% throughput uplift and 2–4ppt EBITDA improvement.
- British Airways — Regional GM, Northern & East Europe (COO Group): £50M regional P&L, 36 Regional Managers across multi-country ops. £2M annualised savings; resolved a 90-day supplier termination crisis; reset a strained CEO-level relationship.
- Wipro (£150M+ delivery portfolio) — Transformation Head: restored distressed accounts from negative EBITDA to profit in two quarters; cut fulfilment time 30%. Previously Chief of Staff to the global C-Suite — £18M account turnaround, £1.45B Capco integration.
- Kantar Media — Operations & Product Delivery: rebuilt QA after a £1M client failure. 70% cycle reduction, £1M EBITDA improvement, tripled field technician footprint (30→90).
Freelance engagements I take on:
- Interim GM / Director of Operations for multi-site or multi-country businesses
- Fractional COO for PE-backed scale-ups
- Turnaround and margin-recovery diagnostics — with execution if needed
- Post-merger integration leadership
- Transformation programmes where a previous attempt has stalled
Credentials: INSEAD MBA, FMVA®, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. EN/RO native, IT conversational, basic ES.
Remote across Europe; available for on-site sprints from London.
Drop me a line if you want a 30-minute scoping call.
Romanian
Native or bilingual
English
Native or bilingual
Spanish
Basic
Italian
Conversational
Remote only
Primarily works remotely
Experience
- IndependentIndependent Operating AdvisorCONSULTING AND AUDITSAugust 2025 - Today (10 months)London, United KingdomSelective senior advisory engagements across industrial trading and professional services. Applying turnaround, Lean Six Sigma, and delivery-model methodologies to mid-market operational challenges across Central & Eastern Europe and the UK.
- Engaged by privately held businesses to drive operational performance and margin improvement.
- Metals trading (Bulgaria) — led an end-to-end operational diagnostic of the scrap metal trading process (intake, grading, weighing, yard handling, processing, outbound sales) using Lean Six Sigma; identified bottlenecks and rework, with recommendations to materially improve yard throughput and reduce unnecessary handling.
- Metals trading (Bulgaria) — identified EBITDA improvement opportunities across selected material categories by reviewing purchasing, grading, pricing, and reconciliation controls; recommended tighter standards on classification, supplier terms, customer pricing, and exception reporting to address margin leakage.
- Metals trading (Bulgaria) — designed and implemented a KPI dashboard and weekly operating rhythm covering traded volumes, gross margin by category, stock ageing, transport cost, yard utilisation, and processing turnaround — shifting management from ad hoc reporting to structured weekly reviews.
- British AirwaysRegional General Manager Northern & East Europe (COO Group)AVIATION AND AEROSPACEJanuary 2025 - July 2025 (6 months)London, United KingdomOwned regional P&L with accountability for safety and operations across UK & Ireland, Nordics, Germany & Benelux, and Eastern Europe. Led the regional management team, drove compliance with legal, regulatory, and industry standards, and partnered with the C-suite on supplier strategy, cost discipline, and operational continuity. Member of the Worldwide Senior Leadership Team and the COO Group.
- Led a senior management team of Regional Managers across UK, Nordics, Germany & Benelux, and Eastern Europe, with dotted-line oversight of Southern Europe and the Head of Supplier Management — holding full accountability for multi-country operations, supplier performance, and regional financial delivery.
- Delivered material annualised savings across the region by leading a Lean Six Sigma resourcing programme that recalibrated station-level staffing to demand-matched operation, complemented by initiatives recovering SLA penalties and tightening commercial controls.
- Worked directly with the COO to shape global strategic priorities; collaborated with IAG on multi-million-pound cost reductions and operational improvements through large-scale transformation initiatives.
- Negotiated complex multi-country agreements with senior executives up to CEO level, securing contractual rate adjustments and embedding performance improvement plans that enhanced service levels and unlocked long-term value.
- Led resolution of a critical supplier crisis following a 90-day termination notice — built a CFO-approved business case, negotiated a sustainable executive-level agreement, and mobilised the team to maintain operational continuity across the region.
- Strengthened business continuity and risk management across the region, embedding governance frameworks and ensuring resilience during operational disruption.
- Wipro GroupTransformation Head — Strategy & Operations (UK&I COO Group)CONSULTING AND AUDITSOctober 2023 - November 2024 (1 year and 1 month)London, UKServed in Wipro’s central Operational Excellence team, reporting directly to the COO of UK & Ireland; drove stakeholder alignment and influenced board-level decisions to ensure strategic initiatives were executed on time, within scope, and with measurable business impact.•Delivered multimillion-pound recovery programmes across banking, telecoms, and IT sectors, implementing initiatives such as redesigning workforce pyramids, re-prioritising delivery scope, renegotiating contracts at C-suite level, and launching task force escalation teams. These measures restored profitability in underperforming units, improved client retention, and mitigated financial and operational risk.•Directed cross-functional programmes, including establishing a single-source-of-truth data lake with predictive analytics and KPI dashboards, re-designing sales and client engagement models, and leading the recovery of distressed client accounts—embedding Lean operational practices that delivered >20% efficiency gains and multimillion-pound savings.•Re-optimised hiring, onboarding, and project allocation processes for 1,000+ staff across pan-European operations, improving workforce planning, resource utilisation, and programme delivery efficiency across multiple client accounts.•Championed the design and rollout of enterprise analytics capabilities alongside a structured change management and communication programme, enabling faster evidence-based decision-making at senior level while embedding cultural adoption and sustaining transformation impact across functions and regions.
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Education
- Strategic Management and LeadershipGloucestershire College2012Master's Degree
- Automatics And Computer ScienceStefan cel Mare University of Suceava (USV)2009Bachelor's Degree
Certifications
- Blue Ocean StrategyBlue Ocean Strategy2020
- Financial Modelling & Valuation AnalystCorporate Finance Institute2023