About Kevin Baker

 

Senior Executive | CEO, COO & General Manager
Multi-Site P&L, Operations & Commercial Leadership

I am a senior operating executive with deep experience leading complex, multi-site, asset-heavy organisations, including founder-led, family-owned, and mission-constrained environments.

Across my career, I’ve been brought in to stabilise execution, professionalise operations, and strengthen commercial performance — particularly during periods of growth, transition, or succession.

My work focuses on:

  • clear operating cadence

  • margin and pricing discipline

  • leadership consistency

  • scalable systems that local leaders can build upon

I leave organisations more resilient, more disciplined, and better governed than I found them.

Operating Leadership & Advisory

My clear preference is to be in a senior operating role.

Alongside that, I undertake selective advisory and consulting work as a bridge — always deliberately secondary to operating leadership. This work is:

  • referral-led

  • relationship-based

  • short-term or clearly bounded

Much of it comes organically through my network, including hundreds of former students from my time teaching at UNSW, rather than through active selling.

Advisory keeps me close to live operating problems while remaining open to the right executive role.

What Consulting Means (When I Do It)

Consulting, at its best, is not advice-giving.
It is diagnosing reality, cutting through complexity, and activating execution.

When I advise organisations, I work hands-on with boards and executive teams to:

  • clarify what actually matters

  • impose commercial and operational discipline

  • align leadership behaviour with strategy

  • and turn intent into repeatable results

I don’t deal in jargon.
I deal in clarity, courage, and capability.

Areas of Focus

Operating & Advisory Domains

  • Board and governance effectiveness

  • Executive and senior leadership teams

  • Organisational design and decision rights

  • Sales management and market growth

  • Operations, procurement, and supply chains

  • Technology, data, and analytics integration

 Sector Experience

  • Retail

  • Building Supplies & Hardware

  • Food Manufacturing

  • Auto Auctions

  • Startups and Exits

  • Non-profits with commercial operations

 

Mission

To help organisations and leaders navigate complexity with clarity,
execute with discipline,
and grow in ways that are both commercially sound and humanly sustainable.

Vision

To turn:

  • burnout into resilience

  • complexity into coherence

  • transition into durable growth

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