Hi wordchild, thanks for nuancing some of the earlier inputs. Of course, nothing is as one-sided as it is ever claimed to be, but what was said up until now certainly reflects the sense we were getting from some of the job ads for these types of roles. It left us feeling that this was something we should probably not spend much more time in pursuing if you already know beforehand that the deck is stacked against you.
If the local companies tend to be Thai exec dominated and the international companies typically bring in their own, known quantity, execs from other parts of the world (at least, that's been the case in my experience so I would think the same would apply for Thailand), then I reckon it's going to be an uphill battle. Not that we shy away from challenges, but I also like to target our efforts where it has the highest chance of success.
If however there is any way to keep this path open, happy to hear about how we could improve our chances to come across and be considered for the limited amount of opportunities where a foreign exec would be welcome :). We've obviously been putting feelers out on LinkedIn and reaching out to some of the more reputable Thai recruiters (sometimes on the back of roles that we knew she would not be considered for), but not a peep back so far. So just weighing the cost/benefit of pursuing this strategy by way of staying informed through things like this forum.
Again, many thanks to all for sharing your perspectives!
My wife does have contacts at Nestle in Europe (think she may know a few at Unilever as well), but doubtful that it's something that would lead to anything, even mid-level, in Thailand without having spent some time working for those companies directly first. One of the thoughts is to see if one of those companies is hiring here in Australia (not for a CFO role, those only come up once in a blue moon of course) but it would imply taking a step back as well as turning this into a longer term strategy. At that point, we may as well play the long game with her current company in hopes that the Vietnam expansion pans out, in which case she's more likely to be moved up to the MD level.