The COO and succession
14.10.2024 – Articles
In August 2024, Brooks Harrington was appointed as the next CIO of Federated Hermes Private Equity. Peter Gale, who had been the CIO and head of private equity for over 15 years, transitioned to a non-executive role as chairman.
We sat down with Federated Hermes’ COO Karen Sands to explore the technical side of the succession process, including LP communication, tackling regulatory requirements and managing change while maintaining stability.
THE LINE_: Federated Hermes’ succession plans were announced over the summer, but I imagine with these things there’s a good amount of work that goes on before that. How long has this been in the works? Where did this all begin?
Karen Sands: Succession planning is a live work stream that, whether consciously or subconsciously, you’re always working on because you’re always planning for the event to ensure ongoing client support and business continuity.
Realistically, in our instance, the succession planning had been developed over some 10 years.