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Jean Stephens is set to step down from her role as CEO of RSM International next May, after holding the role for 17 years.
Having embedded the foundations for RSM’s 2030 Global Strategy, which launched in January this year, Stephens and the RSM International board said they believe now is the right time to initiate a formal succession and transition process.
She will continue as CEO for the network until May 2024, and then continue for a period of time at RSM in an advisory capacity with a focus on member matters and development, and to support an effective transition.
Over her tenure as CEO, interaction and integration across RSM member firms has “significantly deepened” and the network has grown from $2.4bn (£2bn), with 23,000 people across 72 countries to global revenue as at Jan 2023 of $8bn (£6.6bn), with 57,000 people across 120 countries.
As the only global professional services network until as late as 2022 to have a female CEO, Stephens has been a role model for women in leadership positions across the profession, the firm said.
Stephens started at the RSM Global executive office in London in 1996, where she was COO before being appointed CEO on 1 January 2006.
Over the coming months the RSM CEO Succession Committee will engage in a “rigorous” process to select the right candidate to lead the organisation going forward.
Stephens said: “RSM is one of the most progressive professional services organisations in the world. It has been an extreme honour and a real privilege to lead such an ambitious and entrepreneurial Network and to work so closely and for so long with RSM’s exceptional leaders and teams of professionals around the world.
“It is their focus, collaboration, and dedication that has made RSM the great organisation we are today. With a new Strategy to 2030 firmly in place, it is the natural next step in the evolution of RSM that we welcome in a new Global CEO that will complete that journey and take RSM from the strength of today to a new high in 2030.”
Joe Adams, chairman of the RSM International board, added: “We are grateful to Jean for her outstanding service to RSM over the last 17 years as CEO. Her significant and sustained leadership has been instrumental in building the RSM network into the dynamic, global organisation it is today and her engagement in the development of our Global 2030 Strategy will help lead us into the future.
“We are fortunate that Jean will remain with RSM as a strategic advisor with a focus on membership matters and development in support of a successful transition, even as we empower new leadership to help drive us to achieve the 2030 strategy.”
