Lively listening. Shared duties. Pre-planned forgiveness. If the tenets of AlixPartners’ co-CEO relationship sound loads like these of a married couple who’ve gone by means of plenty of remedy, nicely, you’re not far off.
AlixPartners co-CEOs David Garfield and Rob Hornby had been promoted to steer the two,500-person world consulting agency in February, however beforehand had labored collectively for some 14 years, which each say was important. “Having prior work expertise collectively makes an enormous distinction,” AlixPartners co-CEO David Garfield advised Fortune about sharing the highest job with Rob Hornby. “I genuinely imagine that our selections are higher on account of collaborating on them than they’d be if we had been making them independently.”
Garfield relies in New York and has many years of expertise in company technique, shareholder worth creation, and the business facet of the worldwide consulting enterprise. Hornby relies within the UK and spends 30% of his time in New York. He has a soup-to-nuts background in AI, digital innovation, and each startup and world working environments and beforehand led the agency’s Europe, Center East, and Africa area. On the similar time, each perceive the tech and business sides and have a stable decade and a half of working collectively below their belts.
The geographic separation is a strategic benefit for the co-CEOs. Between them, they preserve 20 hours of management protection throughout time zones—a feat that will be unsustainable long-term for a single CEO.
“We’re co-responsible for every part,” Hornby stated. “So we share duty for all outcomes for every part. However that doesn’t imply that we’re equally concerned in every part—as a result of now we have totally different experience.”
They function below a single umbrella of “pre-planned forgiveness,” so if Hornby decides that Garfield wouldn’t have made in the course of the time they aren’t overlapping, there’s no hurt finished. The identical is true for Hornby.
“Then there are some issues we simply should say, ‘That’s too huge. That’s one thing we have to speak about,’” stated Hornby. “And we are going to reserve the fitting to take that offline, communicate to one another and are available again to whoever is asking for a call.”
That dialog all the time includes lively listening, stated Garfield. At this level, they belief one another sufficient to not foyer based mostly on preconceived notions however as a substitute they get one another’s views on the desk.
“Satirically, I believe it will get us to the reply quicker as a result of we don’t should spend time build up a case,” stated Garfield. “Having shared values makes an enormous distinction and having a basis of belief makes an enormous distinction.”
Whereas it’s going to plan for Garfield and Hornby, different management specialists are extra cautious about splitting up the highest job. But, because the world grows extra sophisticated and the CEO position turns into more and more complicated, two may be higher than one—however provided that the mixture is sort of flawless and interpersonal dynamics don’t derail the connection, specialists stated. Previously three weeks, Comcast, Oracle, and now Spotify have all introduced CEO transitions involving a co-CEO management construction with various government chair oversight on the board.
“There’s a lot taking place each externally and internally and organizations are going by means of fixed change and it’s not letting up,” stated Susan Sandlund, a managing director at Pearl Meyer who leads the management consulting apply. “It might probably make sense to have co-CEOs if the corporate truly has a necessity for it however I wouldn’t say it must be the norm. I believe it’s an exception and you need to have a fairly good enterprise case for it.”
Knowledge supplier Esgauge reveals there are solely eight co-CEOs at present working within the Russell 3000 amongst 245 CEO transitions to date in 2025. Throughout the previous decade, the best variety of co-CEOs serving at a single time amongst corporations within the index was 17 in 2023.
A part of the rationale it’s been so unpopular traditionally is that “loads can go improper,” famous Sandlund.
When issues get awkward with co-CEOs
The obvious entice a duo can fall into? Energy struggles, with one government eager to be the standout, stated Shawn Cole, president of search kind Cowen Companions. In conferences with shoppers, buyers, or the board, one may speak over the opposite one, making issues painfully awkward. Factions can kind. Inconsistent messaging can confuse the management workforce; determination making can decelerate. And there’s all the time the chance of confusion about authority, stated Cole, who has been referred to as in to kind out conditions after a co-leadership construction has gone to pot. When it fails, Cole chalks it as much as interpersonal points and a notion about damaged guarantees, particularly if one of many co-CEOs was below an impression it was momentary or that they’d in the end get the CEO position all to themselves.
“It’s very very like a wedding,” Cole stated. “It takes plenty of communication to make it work.” And identical to a wedding, generally exterior gives are too interesting to go up.
“They’re all the time going to be drawn to different sole CEO alternatives,” he stated, which is one more reason co-CEO-ship doesn’t typically final, in his view. He’s skeptical concerning the current appointments, noting that some appear like short-term options to issues which have emerged in succession plans. Typically boards have problem making a call, or executives is likely to be lured elsewhere, he stated. “These simply don’t appear to be long-term options,” stated Cole.
Egon Zehnder’s Chuck Grey, who advises boards on CEO succession, famous that the way in which totally different individuals react to energy “just isn’t all the time predictable.” Typically it’s for the nice, however not in each case.
“I’ve seen individuals who, once they grew to become CEO, they’ve modified,” stated Grey, co-head of Egon Zehnder’s North American board and CEO apply. “When you’ve gotten two individuals sharing energy, you don’t all the time understand how they’ll react to being that kind of construction.”
Grey noticed that defining “equal” in a co-CEO relationship is sort of unattainable. “Is it equal variety of direct reviews? Is it equal dimension P&Ls? Is it the identical dimension workplace?” he stated. “One line of enterprise is greater than the opposite, one has duty for all of the P&Ls and all the company features—will they really feel equal?”
Grey famous a board member as soon as requested that he cease her instantly if the board ever thought of a co-CEO management construction ever once more.
CEOs say they’re lonely
Nonetheless, the CEO position itself could also be driving renewed curiosity in energy sharing and Grey stated his agency plans to analysis splitting CEO roles in additional depth. He’s been telling shoppers not too long ago that “we’ve gotten to some extent now the place the CEO job is sort of an unattainable job for one human to have.” In board searches, CEOs have been asking for unbiased company administrators to be sitting CEOs who’ve handled the continuing disruptions because the fall of 2019.
“Wehn I speak to plenty of CEOs, you possibly can simply see the stress and the pressure,” Grey stated. In concept, if you happen to can share among the burden with somebody, the job may very well be extra sustainable, he stated. Plus, plenty of CEOs say—and Grey famous this was a cliche—however CEOs say they’re lonely. Having one other individual might reduce the load, he stated.
The secret’s having distinctly totally different roles, complementary expertise, shared values, clear determination making rights, and real belief, specialists agreed. Extra importantly, each individuals have to truly need to share the position, which is a trait that doesn’t all the time align with personalities drawn to being a CEO.
“It takes a really mature individual,” stated Sandlund. “Sure CEOs right now, no approach in hell would they be capable of share energy. Some days one will shine and the opposite can’t get their nostril bent out of form over it… You might be actually sharing the limelight and should be OK with that.”
Again at AlixPartners, Garfield and Hornby each stated they’re OK with it. Garfield famous it’s not proper for each firm tradition, however two individuals can have a wider vary if they’ve the fitting chemistry and match. “I believe the calls for on a contemporary CEO are near unsustainable,” stated Hornby. “For those who’re a singular CEO, I believe it’s a fairly robust job these days. Co-CEOs, if you happen to can meet the situations of belief and relationship, simply supplies you with much more bandwidth to cope with an advanced world.”
