A system-building Consumer CEO and Non-Executive Chair for transformation, scale and complexity.
Adam Kakembo builds operating systems that scale consumer businesses under pressure. Over two decades across consumer, luxury, beauty and lifestyle, he has held senior executive roles working with founder-led, founder transition and investor-backed companies through transformation, commercial acceleration and organisational complexity, from early scale through to global expansion and investor exit.
His operating record spans Aesop (scaled from revenues of $380m to $700m), HIDN‑ANDER as CEO, where he doubled revenue ahead of exit, and executive roles at Scotch & Soda, Wrangler, Loewe (LVMH) and Timberland. He currently serves as Chair of PACT, backed by HV Capital and Forbion.
Ukraine Air Rescue Mission 2022Photo: Peter Hamelinck
An Editorial & Operating Platform
Calm at Speed is an evolving body of notes, observations and operating philosophies drawn from a life spent moving between business, family, creativity, sport, mentoring, flying and the quieter moments where judgement is formed.
It sits at the intersection of commerce, creativity, decision-making, human behaviour and aviation, disciplines that appear different on the surface but often ask the same thing: how do you stay clear, steady and useful when conditions are moving quickly?
Over the past two decades, I have lived and worked across London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Melbourne and Dubai, with operating experience across the USA, Europe, the Middle East and APAC. Much of that work has taken place inside founder-led and investor-backed businesses navigating transformation, scale, ambiguity and accelerated growth.
But Calm at Speed did not only come from boardrooms or aircraft cockpits. It has also been shaped by fatherhood, partnership, mentoring, sport, friendship, failure, recovery, moving between cultures and learning to read rooms long before I had any formal authority within them.
Across consumer, luxury, beauty, lifestyle and technology, I have learned that progress rarely comes from certainty. More often, it comes from holding conviction without becoming rigid, creating alignment without suppressing individuality and making high-quality decisions before all the information exists.
I do not separate creativity from commerciality. Creativity is not decoration applied at the end of a strategy process. At its best, it is the mechanism that creates strategic advantage in the first place.
The businesses that compound over time are usually the ones capable of aligning brand, product, people, culture and operating systems into a coherent whole. That requires discipline, restraint, sequencing and long-term thinking as much as vision.
Image: LN-CC and Hidn-Ander
Aviation deepened this philosophy. In the cockpit, complexity punishes ego and rewards preparation, calmness and situational awareness. Panic compounds errors. Discipline creates freedom. The same is true in organisations, in families, in relationships and in the moments where pressure narrows the field of view.
Across all of it, the principles remain consistent: stay aware, stay composed, focus on what matters and avoid confusing movement with progress.
These writings are not thought leadership. They are behavioural operating notes: observations on pressure, decision-making, composure, atmosphere, care, identity, organisational behaviour and systems thinking, drawn from life as much as work.
Some come from business and transformation. Others from family, creativity, failure, mentoring or the small observations that explain more than they first appear to.
At its core, Calm at Speed is about potential: in people, organisations, relationships and ideas. The quality of thinking, judgement and emotional steadiness you bring into an environment shapes the ceiling of what becomes possible within it.
The goal is not simply growth. It is to build lives, organisations, cultures and systems capable of enduring long after the moment has passed.
I've spent two decades inside consumer businesses. I'm also a qualified flying instructor. Both have taught me the same thing: when pressure rises, judgement narrows unless you know how to keep it clear.
Field Notes are drawn from life as a pilot, executive, father and mentor. They keep returning to one question: what holds judgement steady when conditions are moving quickly?
Each note begins with something lived, a specific moment that returns to a question about judgement, pressure or care.
Together, they form the evidence base behind Calm at Speed: a way of building, deciding and staying steady without losing humanity, taste or commercial clarity.
System-building Consumer CEO. Non-Executive Chair. Global Operator.
Adam Kakembo builds commercial operating systems powered by creativity. Over the past two decades, he has held executive roles in founder-led and investor-backed businesses across consumer, luxury, beauty, lifestyle and technology through periods of transformation, scale, organisational complexity and founder transition. His work centres on building coherent operating systems that align people, product, brand, governance and commercial performance without eroding the cultural authority that made the business valuable in the first place.
These are situations where commercial urgency, cultural integrity and organisational complexity are moving simultaneously and at different speeds.
He operates at the intersection of creativity and commercial discipline. The system provides the rigour: product architecture, pricing discipline, channel mix, operating cadence, P&L accountability and execution. Creativity provides the cultural fluency, aesthetic intelligence and emotional precision that allow businesses to translate cultural insight into pricing power, operating advantage and long term enterprise value.
At Aesop, he was instrumental in scaling the business from $380m to $700m revenue while preserving the creative coherence and cultural positioning that underpinned its global expansion. As CEO of HIDN‑ANDER, he doubled revenue ahead of exit through commercial rigour, international expansion and disciplined operational execution. He currently serves as Chair of PACT, the venture-backed biomaterials company supported by HV Capital and Forbion.
Ukraine Air Rescue Mission 2022Photo: Peter Hamelinck
Calm at Speed began as an operating philosophy shaped as much by aviation as by boardrooms and brand building.
Alongside his executive career, aviation has remained a parallel discipline for more than fifteen years. Adam holds UK, European and US flying instructor qualifications across fixed wing aircraft and helicopters, with experience spanning single engine, twin engine and turbine operations.
Over time, flying became less about aviation itself and more about judgement, sequencing, responsibility and calm decision making under pressure. The principles proved remarkably consistent across cockpits, boardrooms and creative environments: clarity matters, atmosphere matters and performance deteriorates quickly when sequence is lost.
Calm at Speed emerged from those observations. The belief that high performance rarely comes from intensity alone, but from the ability to retain clarity, judgement and humanity while moving decisively through complexity. The strongest operators do not create stability by slowing environments down. They create it by bringing calm, coherence and disciplined thinking into environments already moving at speed.
That philosophy continues to shape how Adam leads founder led and investor backed businesses through scale, transformation and organisational change.
Selected mandates across founder-led, investor-backed and publicly listed businesses navigating scale, transformation, founder transition and organisational complexity across consumer, luxury, beauty and technology. The work sits at the intersection of creative discipline, commercial rigour, governance alignment and international growth inside high-pressure operating environments.
Executive Leadership
HIDN-ANDERChief Executive Officer
Materially increased revenue ahead of the brand's sale in 2025.
AesopGlobal Chief Product & Marketing Officer | General Manager
Instrumental in scaling revenue from $380m to $700m.
Scotch & SodaGlobal Chief Marketing Officer · Executive Team
Contributed to EBITDA improvement from €52m to €59m.
WranglerVice President · Product, Brand, Creative, E-commerce & Marketing · EMEA & Asia
Improved operating contribution from 9% to 14% and repositioned the brand via award-winning campaigns.
Non-Executive & Advisory Roles
PACTNon-Executive Chair
Chairs governance, strategic sequencing and commercialisation alongside the founder of the venture-backed biomaterials company supported by HV Capital and Forbion.
LN-CC / The Level GroupBoard Advisor
Advises on the evolution of LN-CC and The Level Group across luxury retail, cultural positioning and future growth strategy at the intersection of commerce, media, wellbeing and experiential retail.
Sonae Fashion DivisionBoard Advisor
Advised Sonae's fashion division across Salsa Jeans, MO and Zippy, supporting strategic growth, brand positioning and commercial development across the portfolio.
Adam has received recognition across creativity, effectiveness, digital innovation and brand building, including honours from Cannes Lions, Eurobest, Clio, The One Show, the Webby Awards and the Effies. The breadth of this recognition reflects a rare ability to connect original thinking, cultural relevance and commercial effectiveness.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix alongside Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions across Cyber, Print and Integrated categories
Eurobest Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards across Print, Outdoor and Digital
Clio Awards
The One Show
Webby Awards
WGSN Global Fashion Awards: Most Innovative Digital Initiative
Drapers Marketing Initiative of the Year
Cristal Awards
Golden Egg Awards (Guldägget)
Jury & Industry Contribution
Adam has chaired the Jury at the Euro Effie Awards, which recognises marketing effectiveness and ideas that work, and served as a Judge at Cannes Lions, the global benchmark for creative excellence in marketing and communications. Taken together, these appointments signal a rare client-side perspective on the full arc of modern brand building: creative quality, strategic effectiveness and commercial return.
Image: Cannes Lions
Enquiries & Advisory
Selected conversations.
For selected speaking engagements and considered advisory conversations, please get in touch.
