As we enter 2026, C-suite transitions continue to rise, making succession planning more important than ever. While many companies defer these conversations, the stakes have never been higher: In the S&P 500, 65% of CEO transitions conclude within 12 months, and most fall between six and 24 months. That’s not a lot of time to get it right.
Throughout my career, I’ve learned that the most resilient organizations treat succession as a strategic lever, not just a governance checkbox. In short, succession planning is not an event—it’s a discipline that requires foresight, rigor and a willingness to challenge the status quo.
At Mastercard, we recognize that transition moments pose both organizational and cultural risks and opportunities. I previously helped lead the CEO handoff during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I understood that my own departure as chief people officer would set the tone for the next phase of the company. The recent process to onboard our new CPO, Susan Muigai, was about more than continuity; it was also a catalyst for advancing our culture and future-proofing our organization.
A good analogy for succession planning is professional sports: Winning teams are constantly scouting and developing talent before their current stars retire. Without that foresight, they can suffer years of losing before getting back on track.
One of the most overlooked elements of succession planning is the incumbent. Too often, organizations place full focus on the successor—supporting their entry, visibility and impact—while neglecting the departing leader’s experience. That oversight can create emotional dissonance, cultural gaps and even resistance to the process.
Considering a meaningful transition period can help to fill that void. For me, the Mastercard Fellows Program has been a critical element of my transition. The program offers a high-impact, time-bound opportunity for C-suite leaders to play a critical role in the company’s external thought leadership while providing as-needed support to internal teams. Our Fellows have included C-suite leaders in cybersecurity, data and open banking, each acting as a bridge of institutional knowledge.
I became a Mastercard Fellow in April and will remain in this role until the end of the year; this has transformed my transition into a time of meaningful contribution. It has reframed the question from “What are you leaving behind?” to “What can you continue to offer during this pivotal season of change?”
In my own succession journey, the Fellows Program has been transformative—not just professionally, but personally. I have supported onboarding, advised on talent transitions and remained closely aligned with strategy and purpose. One Fellow—formerly our chief data officer—helped her successor navigate a high-stakes regulatory audit. Her legacy became an asset, not a shadow.
We also partnered with MyNextSeason, whose approach aligned seamlessly with Mastercard’s people-first ethos. Transition support, I learned, preserves dignity, honors legacy and opens up possibilities that leaders may not have considered. Their frameworks helped us turn ambiguous moments into structured ones. A simple exercise—mapping energy against impact—dramatically shifted my perspective. My next season wasn’t about winding down, but about reimagining contribution. That clarity eased the natural temptation to “grab back” into my old role. Too often, leaders view succession as the beginning of the end. My experience proved the opposite: It is the start of what comes next, and that shift changed everything.
See also: 4 strategies to fix your ineffective CEO succession planning
Preventing whiplash: From 60 miles per hour to 0
Let’s face it: Stepping down from an all-consuming executive role can feel like going from 60 miles per hour to 0. Many leaders remain at the peak of their judgment, networks and influence, but simply need to redirect their energy. A structured transition period helps leaders finish well, channeling their experience into new contributions that sustain the company’s momentum. For me, the Fellows Program has allowed me to transfer hard-won institutional knowledge and ensure cultural continuity for our broader team.
Of course, not every transition goes smoothly. It requires the right conditions: a clear business need, a leader genuinely willing to relinquish authority and a successor open to embracing guidance. If those elements aren’t in place, any dedicated transition period can become symbolic rather than impactful or even create friction between the outgoing and incoming leaders. What we found at Mastercard is that setting expectations up front—around role, duration and scope of influence—was essential. As I’ve said, “It takes a level of maturity on both sides.” When those conditions are met, having a prescribed transition model preserves continuity without stalling progress.
No surprises: embedding culture in succession
Culture is the decisive factor in leadership transitions—it can either accelerate success or undermine it. At Mastercard, our ethos—Create Value, Grow Together, Move Fast—was not just referenced; it was actively woven into every step of my successor, Susan Muigai’s, onboarding. It was a succession anchored in transparency and stakeholder alignment, with our CEO, board and HR leaders unified around a culture-first, no-surprises approach.
Intentional pre-boarding sets the tone from day one. Every touchpoint—from peer immersion to cultural coaching—reinforced the Mastercard Way. For example, Susan’s welcome package, curated with insights from cross-functional leaders and early sessions that brought our “Decency Quotient” to life, ensured that culture was not an afterthought but a strategic priority.
Her onboarding journey was carefully shaped, allowing her the space to listen, learn and integrate at her own pace, while remaining strategically embedded in the organization. The result: rapid impact and immediate credibility, demonstrating that when culture is intentionally embedded, succession becomes a catalyst for momentum.
When asked about her onboarding experience as CPO, Susan shared, “I was thrilled to join Mastercard and look forward to building on the strong platform of talent and fostering a culture that enables its people and business to thrive. From my first day, I’ve seen how our values and the Mastercard Way are not just words, but actions that shape every experience. The care and intentionality in my onboarding made it clear: At Mastercard, culture is our catalyst for momentum and success.”
Succession starts with every leader
Succession planning is a responsibility shared by all leaders—not just those at the top. Transparent processes build trust, and at Mastercard, we extended that transparency to internal candidates not selected. By providing coaching and developmental support, we helped avoid disengagement and talent loss, ensuring everyone understood the decision, the gaps and future growth opportunities. This openness sustained trust across the leadership bench.
Even if your organization isn’t fully aligned on succession planning, you can start with your own team. Identify critical roles, rotate talent, diversify experiences and use internal mobility to develop future leaders. Research from McKinsey and Deloitte shows that regularly refreshing talent—even when performance is strong—prevents stagnation, broadens strategic thinking and builds resilience. Succession is about preparing for tomorrow, not just solving today’s needs.
At Mastercard, we start the succession process with a clear definition of the future leader. Rather than seeking a “clone” of the incumbent, we update leadership profiles to reflect evolving business needs and dynamics, refining them in partnership with the Board for strategic and cultural alignment.
Don’t forget to account for your own succession! If you were suddenly promoted, recruited elsewhere or had to step away for personal reasons, who would step in? Developing and sharing your own plan prepares the organization and demonstrates your credibility as a forward-looking leader. Every leader is responsible not just for results but also for the culture and people they leave behind.
Succession is risk management—use data to prove it
Succession isn’t about gut instinct—it’s risk management. At Mastercard, we’ve relied on data to make it real and used key-person dependency analysis to help us map our exposure: Where were we vulnerable? Who was irreplaceable? Where did development need to accelerate? These insights turned succession from conjecture into a credible, evidence-based discipline.
To complement this, we built and scaled the Culture Health Index, an enterprise-wide measure of leadership, decency, innovation and brand. Drawing on internal feedback, external benchmarks and sentiment sources, such as Glassdoor, the Index provided us with a real-time pulse on both employee sentiment and cultural readiness.
A hallmark of our approach is transparency and care for senior leaders, which we believe drives results. We anchor this in three dimensions of leadership:
- Intelligence Quotient (IQ): Can you solve tough problems and think critically?
- Emotional Quotient (EQ): Can you lead with empathy and connect with others?
- Decency Quotient (DQ): Do you do the right thing and elevate those around you?
This has become a true differentiator for the organization. It is embedded in the Mastercard Way and our Leadership Profile—where we remind leaders that “we have our hand on your back” through both good and challenging times. This philosophy guides our approach to onboarding successors, providing the right balance of support and autonomy and allowing leaders the time to acclimate.
Additionally, we review succession readiness quarterly at the highest levels of leadership, including the board. Targeted coaching and strategic internal moves allowed us to strengthen the bench before it became an issue.
AI as a growth accelerator, not a replacement
If data is our credibility tool, technology is our accelerator. AI has reshaped the art of identifying, developing and supporting talent, and at Mastercard, we’ve embraced this evolution not only as an HR initiative but also as a reflection of who we are at our core—a technology company.
We launched Unlocked, our AI-powered internal talent marketplace, to provide employees with visibility into short-term projects, mentorships and learning opportunities that align with both their current skills and future aspirations. With over one million project hours logged and nearly 90% of employees registered, Unlocked has become an engine of workforce fluidity and succession readiness. It ensures that critical experiences reach deeper into the organization, preparing a broader pool of leaders for what comes next.
We also embedded AI into employee coaching through Cai, our digital coaching tool. Cai enables leaders to rehearse feedback and development conversations, simulate scenarios and receive tailored feedback in real-time. By scaling consistent coaching across the enterprise, we reinforced a culture of growth that is especially vital during times of leadership transition.
The impact has been tangible. Employee confidence in using AI rose by 17 points in our most recent survey, and one in three employees who participated in Unlocked projects has since made an internal career move. For Mastercard, technology isn’t just about operational efficiency; it’s a cultural enabler. It extends our tech-forward identity into how we develop leaders, reinforcing that succession planning is both human-centered and innovation-driven.
Looking ahead, AI may take succession even further. Imagine if organizations could move beyond static résumés and periodic reviews to instead decode leadership potential in real-time through the way individuals problem-solve, communicate and elevate those around them. Advanced assessment tools could continuously measure intelligence, emotional intelligence and even decency, providing transparent feedback loops that surface hidden leadership talent earlier. While this future isn’t here yet, its trajectory is clear: AI will reshape how we identify and develop leaders, but the human element—judgment, empathy and wisdom—will remain indispensable.
Of course, amid all the excitement of our AI age, caution is warranted. The risk is that leaders get distracted by the “next big thing” and lose sight of what succession has always required: disciplined planning and intentionality. Technology can sharpen the process, but only leaders can steward trust. The future belongs to companies that harness AI without losing sight of the human truths that make leadership transitions dignified, fair, and enduring.
From fear to momentum
Ease is the ultimate sophistication in succession. The real test is whether leaders can help even one executive shift from fearing change to using it as a lever for growth—because that shift alone can alter the organization’s trajectory.
Mastercard’s CPO succession illustrates what’s possible when culture, leadership and care are aligned. It’s a model for Fortune 500 companies seeking to prioritize people without sacrificing performance.
When done well, intentional executive transitions are almost invisible; they leave no disruption, only momentum.
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