Chief Operating Officer · Chief Strategy Officer

Strategy set by a CSO. Execution installed by a COO.

I turn a founder's or board's ambition into commercial strategy, financial logic, and an operating system that runs — then I stay to run it until the company is measurable and no longer dependent on any one person.

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Shamil Harsha
Target rolesCOO · Director of Operations · CSO
BasedGlobal remote · GMT+3
AvailabilityImmediate
LanguagesEnglish (working) · Russian (conversational)
17+Years leading strategy & operations
$30M+Revenue impact delivered
$350M+FDI facilitated (national)
100+Team scaled · 8 countries
What I'm looking for

A senior operating seat with real authority.

Chief Operating Officer

Own the operating model, execution cadence, and cross-functional delivery for a scaling company.

Director of Operations

Build the structure, KPIs, and accountability that let a growing team execute without the founder as bottleneck.

Chief Strategy Officer

Set commercial direction and financial logic, then translate it into departments, roadmaps, and measurable results.

Best fit: founder-led or PE-backed companies at $2M–$50M revenue, 15–150 people, where growth has outpaced the operating structure — and in pre-launch ventures that need operations built from zero. Fully remote, across time zones.

The advantage

One leader across strategy, money, teams, and execution.

The core advantage is the CSO-to-COO bridge: I define where the company should go, quantify why it matters, then build and run the operating system that gets it there.

Commercial strategy

Direction & financial logic

Market entry, positioning, pricing architecture, ROI cases, and the board / investor story.

Operating model

Structure & ownership

Departments, role clarity, decision rights, accountability layers, SOPs, and escalation paths.

Financial control

Margin & visibility

P&L discipline, cost reduction, cash-flow visibility, dashboards, and revenue governance.

Execution

Cadence & follow-through

Weekly priorities, KPI/OKR rhythm, cross-functional delivery, and founder-dependency reduction.

Where the leadership comes from

Before the boardroom, two decades on the pitch — as a professional player and captain, at club and national level.

That isn't background colour. It's where the operating style comes from: leading people when the pressure is real and the clock is running, holding non-negotiable standards, making the call in the moment, and winning as a system rather than as individuals. The discipline that carries a professional season is the same discipline that scales a company.

20+ yearsProfessional-level rugby
CaptainClub & national level
Under pressureLeading teams when every second counts
Track record

Strategy, operations, investment, and hospitality.

2023 — Present

Founder & Fractional COO / CSO

GrowthOps Partner · Global Remote

Operating models, KPI systems, execution cadence, governance and SOP structures, and founder-dependency reduction across ~25 start-ups and SMBs in Europe, MENA, LATAM, and global remote teams.

2024 — 2025

Chief Strategy Officer

Vanta Systems · GCC (Kuwait) · Remote

GCC market-entry strategy for an AI-powered LMS; pricing and ROI architecture, compliance planning, product/AI/sales alignment, and school-board acquisition materials converting to ~$1M first-year contracted revenue.

2021 — 2023

Chief Operating Officer

Ultimate Beauty SLU · Barcelona / Remote

Global e-commerce marketplace expansion; fulfilment and logistics redesign, remote team scale-up from 12 to 100+ across 8 countries, EOS implementation, and QuickBooks + DEAR Systems deployment.

2016 — 2021

Chief Business Development Officer

Board of Investment of Sri Lanka

FDI facilitation and public-private partnerships; guided $350M+ in investment projects from first conversation to launch across tourism, hospitality, infrastructure, e-commerce, and travel technology.

2009 — 2016

Operations & Pre-Opening Leadership

DAMAC Hotels & Resorts · Jumeirah Group · UAE

Core member of pre-opening teams for 5 hotel properties; SOP design, guest-service standards, front-office leadership, team onboarding, and shift-level P&L across active properties.

Selected work

The strategy-to-execution pattern, in practice.

Sanitised, board-safe summaries. Named client and case detail shared on request.

E-commerce · COO

Ultimate Beauty — marketplace scale-up

Built international marketplace execution across Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, and Mercado Libre while installing EOS, KPI discipline, inventory visibility, and remote leadership cadence.

$200K→$2M+Monthly run-rate
12→100+Team, 8 countries
−22%Operating cost
  • Onboarded 43 FTEs and 5 director-level hires.
  • Cut delivery times 30% via fulfilment redesign.
EdTech · AI SaaS · CSO

Vanta Systems — AI LMS for GCC schools

Converted a fragmented AI-LMS vision into an MVP, financial model, school-board story, and pilot acquisition package.

176%ROI model
6.8moPayback
50+→8MVP scope reset
  • Built pricing, TCO comparison, and ROI scenarios.
  • Secured pilot commitment via board-ready materials.
Regulated SaaS · Fintech · CSO

Cross-border B2B payments platform

Bridged regulatory strategy, post-acquisition integration, corridor prioritisation, and board-level financial storytelling across multiple countries.

$1.2BAnnualised volume
12Live countries
58→9Features to MVP
  • Unified London, Bangalore, and Nairobi teams.
  • Supported central-bank strategy and Series C narrative.
Governance · Manufacturing · COO architecture

Brazil branch — governance transformation

Designed a board-level governance blueprint for a large agricultural-infrastructure branch operating at significant revenue scale.

R$1.65BRevenue environment
R$18–23MYear-1 impact
L2→L3Governance uplift
  • Codified decision rights, risk protocols, and escalation ladders.
  • Built a CEO-ready 90-day implementation roadmap.
Residential operations · COO

1,800-unit cooperative — first 90 days

Created the full operating architecture for an incoming operations director managing 80+ staff, 4 buildings, and active capital projects.

$22MCapital governed
12 daysTo board-ready plan
80+Staff structured
  • Built board KPI pack and capital-project governance.
  • Turned an exposed entry into a credible operating plan.
Hospitality · Investment · BD

BOI Sri Lanka + DAMAC / Jumeirah

Combined public-private investment strategy with hands-on hotel operations, pre-opening readiness, SOP design, and P&L discipline.

$350M+FDI projects
5Hotel pre-openings
3–4Properties P&L
  • Facilitated tourism, infrastructure, and MICE pipelines.
  • Designed SOPs and multi-property service operations.
Core strengths

Built for owners who need leverage.

P&L ManagementOrganisational DesignEOS ImplementationRevenue StrategyKPI / OKR SystemsPre-Opening OperationsMarket EntryRemote Team ScalingBoard ReportingFDI / PPPAI-Enabled OperationsChange Management
Education
MBA
University of Colombo
2006 — 2008
BBA
Cambridge
2004 — 2006
PG Diploma, Sales & Marketing
SLIM
2008 — 2009
Working across languages

English-first leadership, comfortable in multilingual teams.

My English is executive working level. My Russian is conversational — useful for day-to-day understanding, but not business-native, and I state that honestly.

The real strength is method: structured written communication, meeting notes, dashboards, clear accountability, and bilingual bridges where needed — so nothing depends on informal verbal memory.

Contact

Open to the right senior operating role.

If you're hiring for a COO, Director of Operations, or CSO seat — or want to discuss fit before a formal process — the fastest way to reach me is email or LinkedIn.

Emailshamil.harsha@outlook.com
LinkedIn/in/shamil-h
LocationGlobal remote · GMT+3
AvailabilityImmediate
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