Board
Your audit chair is retiring. Start the search now.
4 min read
Good succession planning starts well before a vacancy.
Good succession planning starts well before a vacancy.
Work backwards from the transition.
The search timetable should leave room for assessment, references and an orderly handover. Agree the committee’s future needs rather than reproducing the retiring chair’s biography. Consider how the appointment complements the rest of the board.
Assess judgement in context.
Ask candidates to discuss situations in which they challenged management, worked with an auditor or changed their view after new evidence. Specific examples reveal how they exercise independence while maintaining a productive board relationship.
A practical next step
Before starting your next appointment, agree the outcomes, the evidence you will assess and the support the new leader will need. Bring those decisions into the first conversation with your search partner.
WRITTEN BY
Noa Feldman
Noa helps boards plan succession and find the right independent voices.
Further reading
Market report
What boards now expect from a first-time CFO
8 min read
We asked 62 chairs what changed in the last three years. The answers say a lot about who gets the job now.
Hiring guide
How to write a search brief that attracts the right people
5 min read
A useful brief makes the hard choices before the first candidate conversation.
Talk to the partner who’d run your search.
Tell us the role in a few lines. A partner calls you back within one working day.
Brief a search →