Hays CEO Departs, Digital Chief Takes Over
Global recruitment firm Hays plc announced the abrupt departure of CEO Dirk Hahn, with Chief Digital and Technology Officer Mark Dearnley immediately appointed as his successor. The board's rapid decision to elevate a digital transformation leader underscores a growing trend of prioritizing tech fluency and organizational reinvention in CEO succession.
Dirk Hahn’s departure comes just six months after he formally took the CEO role on September 1, 2023. A 28-year company veteran credited with building Hays' largest business in Germany, his brief tenure was also marked by a short medical leave in late 2025. The leadership change was announced concurrently with poor half-year financial results ending December 31, 2025. Hays reported a 9% drop in like-for-like net fees, a 49% decline in pretax profit to £4.6 million, and slashed its interim dividend by 84%. The company's stock fell more than 9% on the news. Interim CEO Mark Dearnley joined Hays as Chief Digital and Technology Officer only in August 2025. His background includes leading large-scale digital and IT transformations in senior roles at Vodafone, Inchcape, Boots, and HM Revenue & Customs. Dearnley's elevation aligns with Hays' explicit strategy to leverage technology and AI for growth. He oversees a global transformation program, including a partnership with Cognizant, aimed at modernizing the firm's tech infrastructure and deploying AI agents to improve consultant productivity. The move reflects a broader trend of record-high CEO turnover, with boards increasingly betting on first-time public company CEOs—84% of new S&P 1500 CEOs in 2025 were in their first enterprise CEO role. Elevating a technology leader to the top job signals a board's prioritization of reinvention over incremental change. For boards evaluating candidates from big tech, the emphasis is shifting towards leaders who can navigate large-scale change and implement new business models. The tech sector itself saw a 90% year-over-year increase in CEO turnover in 2024, driven by pressures to integrate AI and satisfy heightened investor expectations.
