Interim Insights: An interview with Chris Broe

At Denison Nunn, we’re passionate about connecting businesses with exceptional interim leaders who drive meaningful change. Over the coming months, we’ll be publishing a series of interviews with some of the most dynamic and experienced professionals across the sectors we serve.

This series will offer fresh perspectives, practical insights, and personal stories from those at the forefront of business transformation. From navigating complex challenges to leading with agility, each conversation will provide a deeper understanding of what it takes to deliver impactful and sustainable results within PE-backed and listed businesses.

We’re kicking off the series with Chris Broe, a highly experienced technology executive with a diverse career in both permanent and interim leadership roles. He spent over 30 years at Unilever, ultimately serving as CIO for Europe, before transitioning to a career in interim leadership. Chris has since held multiple interim CIO roles at the Post Office Ltd, Imperial Brands PLC, and Rolls-Royce, where he led major transformation initiatives and optimized technology operations.

His career took him to NEOM in Saudi Arabia, where he was CIO for the ambitious mega-city project, shaping its technological infrastructure. Most recently, Chris completed an interim leadership role at Valeo Foods UK, a Bain Capital-backed company, where he drove significant tech-driven change.

Chris is known for his commercial acumen, strategic leadership, and ability to drive impactful, sustainable transformation across both large corporates and private equity-backed businesses. Q: Chris, let’s start with when you decided to explore a career as an interim and why you made that decision.

Chris: I spent over 30 years at Unilever, which, by today’s standards, is an anomaly. After a massive transformation in the business while I was CIO for Europe, I began to feel a bit stale. I could sense that the company was heading for another round of transformation, and I wasn’t eager to be part of it again. I started to realize I could easily become one of those senior professionals who stick around too long, full of knowledge but losing the edge. The decision to leave wasn’t immediate—it was more a gradual realization that I wanted variety, change, and new challenges. Since then, I’ve enjoyed the freedom and variety of interim roles. My Unilever experience gave me a broad, international skillset, and I found that it transferred well across different industries, not just in IT but in business transformation and stakeholder management too. 

Q: What advice would you give someone in a similar situation to yours, who’s thinking of leaving permanent employment for an interim or consulting career?

Chris: The first thing you need to do is build a strong network and reputation. When you’re in a big multinational like Unilever, you can become cocooned in your role. Jobs just come to you because people know you. But when you step out into the interim world, you realize quickly that you need to get out there and promote yourself. I spent a lot of time networking with search firms, reaching out to people I knew from my time at Unilever who had moved on to other roles, attending industry events, and speaking at conferences. It felt like an audition process—constantly putting myself out there. It wasn’t always easy, but it paid off. Over time, I’ve built a network that makes it easier to find new opportunities, even when I’m between roles.

I’ve also done a lot of pro bono work just to demonstrate my abilities and maintain my network. People are often surprised when I offer my expertise for free, but it’s been useful in keeping connections alive, learning new things, and making sure I’m top of mind for new opportunities. More recently, I’ve worked with a mid-sized consulting firm where I’ve acted as an honest broker, reviewing proposals and giving feedback. It’s another way to stay active and involved in the industry while continuing to build my network.

Q: You’ve worked in both large public companies like Unilever and Rolls-Royce, and in private equity-backed firms like Valeo. What are the key differences between these types of organizations in terms of operating as an interim?

Chris: One of the key things I’ve observed across all industries is that businesses typically have the same fundamental challenges, though the severity can vary. They often struggle with high run costs, service delivery issues, people & organisational problems and misaligned capital projects. More specifically, companies often face challenges with IT development agendas that don’t align with the business strategy, which can result in wasted investment or missed opportunities.

However, the interim experience differs between public and private equity-backed firms. In large, listed companies like Unilever or Rolls-Royce, there’s often more of a stable, ongoing culture with well-established processes and resources. These companies tend to have the people and infrastructure to support long-term change.

In private equity-backed companies, the urgency is different. They usually bring in an interim to resolve immediate problems, and there’s often more pressure to move fast.

The focus is on delivering results quickly, and you’re typically given more freedom to execute. That said, private equity firms can find it challenging to balance expectations between the necessities of furthering a high-tech, innovative agenda, and resolving the excessive levels of technical debt that are less headline-grabbing but the fundamental building blocks upon which everything else rests. My role is to help them strike this balance.  

Q: In your experience, what are the biggest challenges facing private equity-backed businesses when it comes to technology and talent?

Chris: One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen in PE-backed companies is a shortage of people with the right skill sets. Often, these companies come from a background of being family-owned or smaller businesses, where IT has been low priority. The existing IT teams are great at keeping things running, but they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to drive major change. 

At Valeo, we moved quickly to bring in interim expertise in key areas so we could begin to make progress.  This allowed us to  create the breathing space to recruit the permanent capability which would be needed going forward. 

Q: Is there anything else you’ve found particularly interesting or challenging in your career as an interim?

Chris: The biggest challenge for me is always balancing speed with sustainability. As an interim, there’s pressure to deliver results quickly, but you also need to ensure that the changes you make are sustainable in the long term. You can’t just deliver a quick fix if it’s going to cause bigger problems down the road. It’s a constant balancing act.

Another interesting aspect of interim work is the variety of challenges you face. Every company is different, and even when you’ve solved similar problems in the past, each company has its own unique culture, politics, and history. You have to quickly understand the dynamics of the business and adjust your approach accordingly. But that’s also what I enjoy—the diversity of roles and the opportunity to make a tangible impact in a short amount of time.

Q: Chris, in your view, how do the responsibilities of an interim CTO/CIO differ from that of the permanent individual who takes the remit on?

Chris: As an interim, it’s essential to make sure that everyone around me understands that I’m only here for a short time, and that the team needs to be able to sustain themselves after I leave. My primary focus is on delivering fast, tangible impact, but equally, I’m very conscious of the legacy I leave because I can't do anything to change that after I exit, so the last thing you want is for the foundation you lay to fall apart. I think your legacy as an interim is crucial. It’s often overlooked, but it’s a key part of how you’ll be remembered, and that’s something I take seriously. For example, I’m actually happy to offer some free consulting after the interim role is officially over to help ensure a smooth transition. It’s about ensuring continuity and making sure the business doesn’t hit a roadblock once you’ve left.

Also, down the line—whether it’s months or years—you may find that the team will need to reach out for advice. Make yourself available for that. It might seem like a small thing, but it reinforces your personal brand and reputation. People appreciate it, and it can significantly impact how your tenure is viewed in hindsight. So, stay open to it and make sure your work doesn’t just stop when you walk out the door.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self when you first took on your CIO role, and later when stepping into interim roles?

Chris:The biggest piece of advice I would give is to ensure you always communicate commercially. You need to empathize with the Board and communicate in ways that address their concerns and goals. It’s all about pragmatic solutions—being able to talk about technology in a way that aligns with the broader business strategy. And, it’s important to be conscious of your potential bias towards IT and technology. Sometimes, we as CIOs or CTOs get too wrapped up in the technical side, which can sometimes cloud our judgment when considering the bigger business picture.

But you also need your foot firmly in the tech camp. Show that you respect your team and understand the technical challenges they face. There’s often friction between the commercial and IT teams, and that’s especially evident in times of crisis, like an IT outage. So, you have to know how to balance both sides.

Finally, one last piece of advice: always try to talk to and debrief your predecessor before stepping into any interim role. The insights and perspective you gain from them are invaluable. It sets a good tone from the outset to the remaining Team, and you can reassure all concerned that you’re not looking to throw them under the bus when you join the business. Rather, you’re looking to build on what they did previously and maintain as much as possible of  their legacy. More often than not, your predecessor will have implemented many good strategies and have ideas in play.  So, respect their legacy—it’s something that can make your transition smoother and your own impact more effective.