By bizn_fun 
Yet a co-CEO model has yet to become a mainstream, long-term solution. Salesforce, SAP and Marks and Spencer all appointed co-CEOs in the early 2020s, lasting no more than two years.
Tierney Remick is a Chicago-based vice chairman and co-leader of the global board and CEO practice at business consultancy Korn Ferry.
She’s observed that co-CEOs tend to work best at independent companies without complex structures, and with two people that have already worked together.
Otherwise, there can be power struggles, misalignment in vision, and confusion amongst the wider company.
“Leaders trying to establish their partnership, as well as drive the business and evolve the strategy – and doing it in a way that doesn’t create confusion in the organisation – is usually very difficult if they don’t know each other,” says Remick.
Co-CEO pairings can also be used as a type of succession planning to see if one will ultimately become the sole, core CEO, she adds.
“There’s a tremendous amount of succession planning happening at the moment. And there is the reality that the pipeline of ‘ready-now’ CEOs has decreased over the last several years,” she says.
“So we are seeing boards find different ways to expand the roles and responsibilities of high potential leaders, to see how they accelerate and grow in a market that is creating a lot of change and ambiguity every day.”
For Begg, her co-CEO days came to an end in 2024 when Board Intelligence acquired private equity backers, which became a natural point for Sundberg to stand down. Sundberg remains on the company’s advisory board.
Now Begg is the sole CEO, she acknowledges she has less time to spend with family, so her husband left his job to be more present at home.
After their youngest child started school last September, he set up a consultancy that he works on during school hours.
“He carries the load of home and family life. It still probably raises an eyebrow when he’s called into a meeting and he says it has to be between 10am and 3pm. They’ll be shocked that a man has said that,” says Begg.