Getting Executive Succession Right: Comp and Leadership Considerations

^{Compensation Committee Webinar Series}

Choosing the next CEO is one of the most impactful decisions a board will make, with implications that extend well beyond leadership continuity to strategy execution, stakeholder confidence, and long-term value creation. Effective succession planning, however, goes beyond the CEO role alone. It requires boards to take a broader, enterprise-wide view of leadership—assessing and developing the C-suite and multiple layers of potential successors—while aligning talent decisions with long-term business objectives.

This work demands intentional, multi-year preparation and close coordination between the board and management, yet many organizations approach succession too late—or with an overly narrow focus.

Join executive compensation and leadership experts from Pearl Meyer as they explore how boards—and specifically their compensation committees—can strengthen succession outcomes by defining future-oriented leadership expectations and using executive compensation as a strategic lever to support leadership assessment, development, retention, and long-term organizational resilience.

We’ll review:

• How the CEO role is evolving and the leadership realities executives face today

• The leadership capabilities that define resilient, future-ready CEOs

• Why effective succession planning requires a multi-year approach to assessing and developing multiple internal candidates (as well as external candidates)

• The risks and tradeoffs of “clone” succession—selecting a CEO who mirrors the incumbent—versus complementary succession focused on the capabilities needed for the company’s next phase

• When boards should begin preparing for CEO succession—and why waiting increases risk

• How compensation design can support leadership development, retention, and succession readiness across the executive team