The Leadership Gap in Employee-Owned Companies: Notes from the 2026 NCEO Forum
Cowen Partners Executive Search was the presenting sponsor of the NCEO Forum, held August 26 to 28, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Forum convenes the executives, trustees, and advisors who make employee ownership work, and it remains one of the most substantive gatherings in the ESOP community each year.
Managing Director Shelby Varon and Director of Executive Search Emily Thomas represented the firm on site.
The Leadership Gap: C-Suite and Board Succession in Employee-Owned Companies
Shawn Cole, President of Cowen Partners Executive Search, led a CEO Peer Network session on succession in employee-owned companies.
The premise was direct. The leadership gap is no longer a future problem. It is arriving now. Employee-owned companies across industries are facing a compounding wave of C-suite and board transitions with fewer prepared successors than most leadership teams realize.
The session was built as a peer discussion rather than a presentation, organized around a single question every leadership team needs to answer: are we actually ready? Participants were asked to think past the CEO seat, and to learn from the room as much as from the research.
It set out to do three things.
- Describe the scope and urgency of the C-suite and board succession gap facing employee-owned companies, grounded in current research and data.
- Identify the governance and leadership challenges that are specific to ESOPs when executive and board succession arrive at the same time.
- Give each participant a way to evaluate their own organization’s readiness for leadership transition beyond the CEO role.
Why the Gap Is Arriving Now
The research underlying the session comes from The Leadership Inflection Point, Cowen Partners Executive Search primary research drawn from a 50-company S&P 500 sample, with CEO and CFO ages pulled directly from SEC proxy filings.
Among that sample, 42% of CEOs are already 60 or older, and 16% are at or past 65 with no visible transition plan. A quarter of the CFOs sit within five years of retirement. Across the top two seats, 33.7% of positions are inside the retirement window at the same time. When both seats turn over together, a company does not lose two executives. It loses its internal succession architecture.
The bench directly below is not the cushion it appears to be. In the same sample, EVP and SVP ages cluster between 50 and 63, which puts the second tier inside its own retirement window within the decade. Our read on timing is that the peak executive departure window lands between 2029 and 2034.
Those figures describe the public markets. What carried into the room in Phoenix is the pattern, because the demographics driving it are not unique to the S&P 500.
What Makes ESOP Succession Different
Employee-owned companies carry a version of this problem that conventionally held companies do not.
Succession has to be planned at two levels at once. The executive team and the board are both accountable to employee-owners, with the trustee sitting between them. A new chief executive arriving without a board that knows the company, or a refreshed board without an executive team that can carry the operating plan, exposes the ownership structure in a way a privately held company would not feel as sharply.
The cultural requirement is just as real. A leader who does not understand what employee ownership means to the people who hold it can be technically qualified and still wrong for the seat. That is the distinction that makes ESOP executive search its own discipline.
Invested in the ESOP Community
Sponsoring the NCEO Forum reflects a commitment that goes beyond individual searches. Cowen Partners Executive Search invests in the employee ownership community because we believe in the model: companies where performance and employee wealth grow together.
That proximity matters in ESOP executive search. Staying close to the community keeps our understanding current and our networks deep.
Cowen Partners Executive Search Research
The ESOP Leadership Imperative
How board strength, executive fit, and succession planning drive long-term value for employee-owned companies
The paper behind the session. It makes the case that an ESOP’s long-term valuation is set less by its financial structure than by three leadership decisions, and it closes with 17 diagnostic questions across board composition, executive cultural fit, and CEO succession readiness. The same audit Cowen Partners Executive Search runs at the start of every new ESOP engagement.
About Cowen Partners Executive Search
Cowen Partners Executive Search is a leading national executive search firm, known for placing world-class C-suite leaders, board members, and senior executives across industries.
Specializing in finding and recruiting top talent, we provide clients with comprehensive access to the executive marketplace, ensuring that each search is tailored to the unique needs of the organization. Our clients benefit from a proven track record of delivering high-impact leaders who drive growth, innovation, and performance.
At Cowen Partners Executive Search, we go beyond traditional executive search by offering strategic insights and expertise that help companies build high-performing teams and navigate complex market challenges.
Whether it’s sourcing transformative CEOs, CFOs, or board directors, we are committed to excellence, transparency, and results-driven solutions, making us the trusted partner for businesses looking to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
About Shawn Cole, President & Cofounder
Shawn Cole is a serial entrepreneur and executive leader with over 15 years’ experience founding and running successful companies. Shawn’s business career has been centered on value creation for both turnarounds and startups.
Shawn is President and Co-Founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search, a national CFO executive search firm focused on the key elements of a successful business: sales, marketing, and finance. Business clients across the country trust Cowen Partners Executive Search to take their companies to the next level by finding them executive talent, such as a CEO, CFO, COO, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer. Clients are both small and large, publicly traded, pre-IPO, private, and non-profit organizations.
An active participant in the business community and startup space, Shawn Co-Chairs The Cowen Partners Venture Fund, which provides seed funding and early-stage investments, focusing on market disruptors in niche markets, community businesses, and minority entrepreneurs.
Shawn attended Oregon State University’s College of Business Austin Entrepreneurship Program and participated in a first-of-its-kind experiential entrepreneurship experiment at Weatherford Hall. He was also a Founding Member and President of Oregon State University’s Students in Free Enterprise, an international non-profit organization working with university students who want to positively change their communities and learn practical knowledge to become socially responsible business leaders.
At the age of 16, Shawn became a volunteer firefighter and EMT, eventually founding and managing a half-marathon to raise funds for the community. To date, he has raised over one million dollars benefiting the community.
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