Recognized Succession Planning Leaders 2025

Jennifer Doherty, MIRHR, is CEO of ProvenHR, where she helps organizations align people strategy with business goals. With over two decades of HR leadership across legal, media, IT, and regulatory sectors, Jennifer brings a pragmatic, business-focused approach to complex workplace challenges. She developed the HR Excellence Matrix, a framework that helps founders and executives manage people-related risk and results with the same rigour as financial metrics.

I’m a FINMA-licensed financial advisor based in Switzerland, specializing in retirement and pension planning for individuals and companies. Through Invexa, I help clients build clear, sustainable long-term financial strategies that integrate both investment and insurance components. My approach combines personalized wealth planning with regulated insurance brokerage services to deliver practical, compliant, and goal-oriented solutions for every stage of life.

How can organizations adapt to create new growth paths and manage risk in rapidly changing markets? This is the focus of my strategy and risk advisory work. I leverage my extensive track record in high-performance team building and operations leadership to help clients solve challenging problems at the nexus of risk, strategy, and innovation. I have over a decade of strategy consulting and executive leadership experience across multiple industries. I was the Director of Strategy for a Top 50 Foodservice Distributor, helping lead the company through its acquisition by a Top 5 Distributor. After that, I became CEO and led the turnaround of a produce merchandising and distribution company. My educational background includes a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary, an MBA from Texas A&M University, and a PhD in religion from the University of Birmingham (UK).

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I am the founder of Bayview Financial Group and have been in business since 1998. We offer wealth management, retirement planning for Canadians and we also have an employee benefits division where we act as benefits consultant and broker for small and medium sized Canadian employers.

With 35+years of hands on experience and R12Million in invesment into research and expertise, Tony is an expert in optimising People, Teams, Leadership and Culture to thrive in tough Times. Developer of the REVOLUTIONARY WORKPLACE High Performance Teams system, The Success Ensurance Self Mastery System, and author of SWIFT SUCCESS Mindset, AdaptAgility and REVOLUTIONARY WORKPLACE CLEARx framework. Tony guides people and teams to unleash more of thier amazing potential.

As EVP of M&A, Joe leads PRITCHETT's M&A integration practice which has consulted on acquisitions valued in total over $350 billion. He is the architect of PRITCHETT’s M&A integration methodology, an approach that has been used successfully by thousands of acquirers. Joe also conceived of and brought to market the Merger Integration Certification Workshop, the most successful M&A integration training program in the world. Plus, he created MergerIntegration.com which is now the most visited web site on M&A integration. MergerIntegration.com provides step-by step instruction on how to run integration projects and is populated with over 500 deliverables from PRITCHETT consulting engagements. Joe is the author of the books, Street Smart Moves for Selling your Business and What’s Next? He is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Natalie Michael is a trusted advisor to CEOs navigating what's next—whether preparing for their own transition, developing key talent, or designing a purposeful next chapter. As Managing Partner of CEO Next Chapter, she combines over 20 years of experience in executive development with a unique focus on succession strategy, peer learning & leadership reinvention. A Master Certified CEO Peer Group Leader with Mackay CEO Forums and Chair of Tiger 21 Vancouver 3, Natalie works closely with business leaders stewarding enterprises ranging from $10M to $6B. She holds a Master’s in Organizational Leadership, numerous coaching certifications, and has authored two books on CEO development. Natalie also serves on the boards of Foundations for Social Change and Wavefront Centre for Accessibility. Her favorite book is Dr Hawkins Map of Consciousness.

Prior to founding AdaptiveERP, Sara spent over 20 years in institutional financial services — spanning trading, analytics and GRC consulting, — environments where precision and accountability are non-negotiable, enabling her to bring enterprise-grade discipline to cross-industry SaaS solutions. That experience shaped a mindset where controls, clarity and operational flow are designed as one continuous system. With an MSc in Computer Science from Imperial College — the UK's MIT, she now leads a cross-industry SaaS ERP platform that bridges enterprise risk and technical architecture, by embedding systemic security into core architecture and operations. She conceived and integrated every component of the methodology — spanning finance, operations, GRC, internal controls and cyber — into a unified system. Her rare ability to merge business strategy with technical execution ensures robust, scalable systems—minimizing risk and miscommunication from day one. She also served as Vice-President and Director of The Hedge Fund Association. Today, those same principles guide our approach: strategy and technology built together, so each strengthens the other, while mitigating systemic risk.

15 + years of experience in Payroll Business Operations, 4+ years helping EOR, PEO, & Staffing companies for Business Operations w/ purpose-built workforce management & invoicing automation platform.

Joe Sagrilla is an independent management consultant and business advisor, top business school faculty, Board member, writer, and speaker. His specialties include business strategy, technology, transformation, process improvement, and organizational performance.

I am an exceptional IT Leader skilled at IT Service Management, IT Operation Management, HRSM, Supply Chain Management, Data Governance, Organizational Change Management, and Real-Time Dashboards Monitoring & Reporting. Technically-savvy with outstanding relation-ship building, training and presentation skills.

Sascha Drache is CEO of Ratgeber Stiftung and one of Germany’s most experienced advisors in the field of foundations, asset protection, and long-term wealth structuring. With more than 17 years of practical experience and involvement in the establishment and management of over 700 foundations, he combines legal, fiscal, and entrepreneurial perspectives into holistic solutions for entrepreneurs, professionals, and family-owned businesses. His work focuses on using foundations as strategic instruments for asset protection, tax optimization, succession planning, and sustainable corporate governance. Unlike purely theoretical approaches, Sascha Drache emphasizes practical implementation, long-term viability, and clear structures that can be integrated into everyday business life. He is a frequent expert contributor to leading German media outlets and regularly speaks on the strategic use of foundations for medium-sized companies and private wealth planning. His advisory approach is characterized by clarity, independence, and a strong focus on safeguarding assets across generations.

Will Lane is a seasoned financial expert with over 20 years of experience across the financial sectors of banking, investments and insurance. He leads educational workshops across the country focused on helping Black families build, protect, and pass down generational wealth. Specializing in retirement planning, estate planning strategies and life insurance, Will is known for his ability to make complex financial concepts practical, relatable, and easy to understand. His work centers on empowering families with the knowledge needed to move from short-term financial planning to long-term financial security. Will has been featured in national publications such as Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, and American Business Stars, where he shares insights on the importance of financial literacy, legacy planning, and closing the racial wealth gap. A key aspect of his approach is helping individuals identify and overcome self-sabotaging financial patterns so they can make confident decisions about protecting their families, preparing for retirement, and leaving a lasting legacy. Through his education-first approach and no-nonsense delivery, Will has become a trusted voice for podcasts, panels, and publications focused on financial education, wealth building, and economic empowerment within the Black community.

Jay Sunde is an accomplished entrepreneur with deep experience across multiple industries. He began his career in financial analysis, producing complex forecasts and strategic projections for regional and national companies in commercial real estate, residential real estate, and healthcare. Driven by an entrepreneurial mindset, Jay founded a custom homebuilding company in his mid-20s and grew it into a multi-million-dollar business, developing both custom and speculative homes throughout central North Carolina. During the 2008 housing crisis, he successfully pivoted by acquiring two pool and spa retail and service companies. He scaled both operations, overseeing all aspects of the businesses, and later exited through sales in 2012 and 2018. Since 2009, Jay and his wife, Danielle, have partnered to launch, grow, and acquire preschools, daycares, and elementary schools across the Southeast. Along the way, they also acquired the commercial real estate occupied by their schools and built a growing portfolio of residential real estate holdings. Today, their education platform generates more than $5 million in annual revenue, employs over 70 team members, and serves nearly 500 families. Jay is active in numerous entrepreneurial and small business organizations and, for the past eight years, has consistently mentored and advised founders, business buyers and sellers, and individuals seeking greater financial and time freedom through business ownership.

I help organizations stop treating AI like a science project and start using it to run real work. Currently the senior director of AI strategy at ABBYY, a global leader in Document AI and digital transformation solutions. With over 10 years of experience in the AI field, I lead the creation and execution of the go-to-market strategy for ABBYY's cutting-edge AI technology, delivering value to customers and stakeholders across various industries and domains. My core competencies include product vision and strategy, technology evangelism, customer innovation, and digital transformation. I am passionate about building and launching innovative products that solve real-world problems, leveraging AI capabilities and technology ecosystem. I also enjoy evangelizing technology offerings and sharing my insights and expertise as a thought leader in the AI space. My mission is to help customers and partners achieve their digital transformation goals and unlock new opportunities with AI.

With over 20 years of executive leadership experience in the nonprofit sector, I am passionate about creating positive social impact and system change through collaboration, strategy, and innovation. As the CEO of HealthForce Partners California, I lead a cross-sector, multi-regional, non-profit partnership that connects healthcare, education, and workforce development to mitigate workforce shortages and build career opportunities in the regions we serve.