Planning the succession of a successful, long serving CEO is a difficult for any board. As an approach, usually a new CEO is named with transition of the former CEO into an executive chair (EC) role, ideally retaining their expertise and experience till the new CEO picks the right speed.

To learn more about how to manage a successful transition to executive chair, the author spoke to few executives to understand how the CEOs and executive chairs avoid the risks of having two prominent leaders. The major ground rules considered are:

• Clear, visible and rapid handover


• Building trust is key to Success


• The executive chair and CEO need to be clear about the division of labour.


• The board should be built around the needs of the new CEO.

Multiple successful executive chairs shared their belief that board needs to be clear and unwavering in their encouragement and backing of the new CEO and celebrate new ideas and ways of working.

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