Damian Tynan is a Partner at Omera Partners specialising in Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Customer Officer, and Managing Director executive search across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. A former Sales and Marketing Director with blue-chip brand experience at EVT, Kellogg’s,Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, Damian brings rare practitioner credibility to every search, having navigated the roles he now appoints.
What are the biggest challenges your clients face in finding senior talent?
“The biggest challenge I see is organisations confusing familiarity with fit. They gravitate towards candidates who look like the last person in the role, when what they actually need is someone who can lead through what is coming next. My job is to show clients alternatives that help them get comfortable with the right answer, not just the safe one.”
Which industries or functions do you specialise in?
“Consumer is my world: Consumer Goods, Consumer Services, Retail, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer brands. I focus on the C-suite roles that sit at the intersection of brand, digital, and customer: Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Customer Officers, and Managing Directors. Having worked client-side with brands including Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Event, I understand the commercial and organisational pressures these leaders actually face.”
What types of appointments are you most proud of?
“The ones that take some convincing. I led a Chief Marketing Officer search for a major consumer business where the brief was pointing firmly in one direction, and I was confident it was the wrong one.”
Working closely with the client, Damian challenged the brief and introduced a candidate they had not initially considered. It took time and a candid conversation or two, but the client came around. The appointment proved to be one of the strongest the business had made in a decade, and the client has remained grateful ever since.
As Damian reflects: “The best candidates rarely arrive fully labelled. When a client calls years later to say that appointment changed the trajectory of their business, that is the work that matters.”
How do you build trust with both clients and candidates?
“It is always best to be straight with people, and I find that is sometimes rarer than it should be. If I think a brief is set up to fail, I will say so, politely and respectfully. If a candidate is not the right fit, I would rather have that conversation early. People come back because they know I am genuinely invested in getting it right, not just filling a role.”
“For me, greatness isfound in the people who do not fit neatly into a job description but areexactly what an organisation needs for the future. After years on the clientside, I know how rarely the obvious candidate is the transformational one. Whena client calls to say that appointment changed the trajectory of theirbusiness, that is the work that matters to me.”
What keep you energised outside of work?
“Family keeps me grounded, and my adult children are the first to remind me I am not as clever as I think I am. I have been refereeing rugby for 25 years and I am still turning up at 6am most mornings to keep fit with a group of old friends at a local oval. I am Chair of a charity focused on educational opportunities for young people, and I have a long-running passion for following consumer trends, which fortunately doubles as research.”
