Based in Spencer Stuart’s Hong Kong and Shanghai offices, Dr. Richard Zhu is a consultant in Spencer Stuart’s Industrial, Automotive and Supply Chain practices and a core member of the firm’s Board and CEO and Private Equity (PE) practices. He previously led the Industrial Practice in Asia Pacific from 2017 to 2024 and the Supply Chain Practice in Asia Pacific from 2013 to 2017. Bringing his extensive international background and network from multiple industries, he helps multinationals, Asian and Chinese businesses, as well as investor-backed companies, building and renewing global and regional leadership to meet their strategic imperatives.
Global expertise and deep insight into the Asia market
- Within the broad industrial arena, Richard has a primary focus on the automotive, transportation & logistics and industrial services sectors. He specializes in board director, CEO and senior executive search assignments in the general management, commercial and operations functions. During his tenure with Spencer Stuart, he has represented clients looking for profitable growth through new product introduction, service offerings and geographic expansion, as well as clients in need of drastic operational or financial transformation.
- As a member of the global supply chain practice, Richard helps clients in a wide range of industries, spanning the automotive, industrial and high tech manufacturing, retail, consumer products, chemical, and healthcare sectors. He helps them build and strengthen their supply chain capabilities by recruiting senior executives in manufacturing, procurement, logistics, shared services and integrated supply chain management.
- Richard brings more than 20 years’ experience to his client work. Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, he held executive positions in general management, corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and senior sales and operations management roles throughout Asia and Europe with leading global companies, including UPS, Agility and Sea-Land Services (now part of Maersk Line).
Prior to his industrial experience, Richard lectured at various universities in China and Canada. He earned a Ph.D. in management science and operations research from University of British Columbia.