PLAN FOR While the frequency of unplanned changes at the top of the house truly surprised me, the causes of these unexpected changes varied widely, including: • Surprise/early retirement. • Resignation for personal/ family reasons. • Termination for poor performance. • Termination for inappropriate behavior. • “Nudged out” by the board after staying too long without a plan. • Death or serious illness. One only needs to read the news in any major business publication to see that literally almost every day, the CEO of a major public company, private-equity-backed enterprise or financial institution exits for one reason or another. Unplanned transitions simply occur much more often than we like to think about. The vast majority of bank boards, whether public, private or mutual, are well aware of the need to have an “Emergency Succession Plan.” Our regulators require this, of course, and it is a best practice to regularly refresh this plan as time UNPLANNED CEO TRANSITIONS BY ALAN J. KAPLAN Founder & CEO, Kaplan Partners Since the founding of our firm over 30 years ago, we’ve been fortunate to assist clients with over 100 President or CEO succession projects across the financial services landscape. When reviewing these successful assignments with an eye towards common themes, I was struck by the number of leadership transitions that occurred unexpectedly. 14 The Community Banker
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