Boards prefer process

Vistry Group said on April 13 that Adam Daniels became chief executive with immediate effect after what the board called a “multi-year” succession process led by its nomination committee. (investegate.co.uk) The company said the search considered internal and external candidates and used external advisers before selecting Daniels, who had been executive chair of one of Vistry’s two largest operating divisions and a member of the executive leadership team. (investegate.co.uk) That appointment came five weeks after Vistry said on March 4 that Executive Chair and Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald planned to retire, with the chair and chief executive jobs to be split and a successor search already under way. (investegate.co.uk) On March 17, Vistry named Rob Woodward as non-executive chair from May 13 and said he would keep leading the nomination committee while overseeing the chief executive succession process. (investegate.co.uk) The sequence matters because British listed companies are expected to show their workings on succession. The United Kingdom Corporate Governance Code has a section titled “Composition, Succession and Evaluation” and applies on a “comply or explain” basis to companies in the commercial companies category. (frc.org.uk) Boards are also putting more committee time into succession. In Spencer Stuart’s 2025 survey of 78 nominating and governance committee chairs at Standard and Poor’s 500 and MidCap 400 companies, 74% ranked board composition and succession planning among their top priorities for the next three years. (spencerstuart.com) The same survey said 59% of respondents assigned formal responsibility for chief executive succession planning and chief executive selection to the nominating or governance committee, and 55% said their board was actively driving succession activities and transitions. (spencerstuart.com) A separate Spencer Stuart pulse survey of 797 public and private company directors found that boards had spent the prior 12 months discussing the profile for the next chief executive, meeting possible internal successors, and building plans across “ready now,” one-to-two-year, and three-to-four-year timelines. (connect.societycorpgov.org) Vistry’s disclosures fit that pattern: a retirement notice on March 4, a chair appointment on March 17, and a chief executive appointment on April 13, each tied to governance steps, committee oversight, and transition planning. (investegate.co.uk 1) (investegate.co.uk 2) (investegate.co.uk 3) The message from those filings is procedural as much as personal: when boards change leaders, they are still choosing to show a search, a committee, and a paper trail before they show a new chief executive. (investegate.co.uk) (frc.org.uk)