- Praise and thanks for Manning
- Tony Cheng taking over
- Manning said 74 words
(exechange) — St. Louis, Missouri, January 4, 2023 — Anna Manning, chief executive of RGA, is set to leave her position. Her upcoming departure is made public at an early stage. As announced by Reinsurance Group of America Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, Anna Manning leaves her post as chief executive officer at the life and health reinsurer, after seven years in the role, effective December 31, 2023.
Long goodbye
It is a long goodbye. The announcement of Anna Manning’s move comes up to 12 months prior to her planned departure from the post of CEO.
In general, a top executive who announces the departure particularly early may be considered a lame duck.
Anna Manning’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Tony Cheng, most recently Executive Vice President, Head of EMEA, Asia, and Australia at Reinsurance Group of America Inc.
Tony Cheng has been appointed to the role of President, effective January 4, 2023, succeeding Anna Manning, who remains Chief Executive Officer.
Manning will retire from her role as Chief Executive Officer on December 31, 2023. The Board plans to appoint Cheng as Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2024.
“Capitalize on the abundant opportunities we see ahead”
RGA did not give an explicit reason for Anna Manning’s planned departure from the CEO post. Stephen O’Hearn, Chair of the RGA Board of Directors, said: “Tony is the right person to lead RGA into the future and to capitalize on the abundant opportunities we see ahead.”
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (26.7% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.2%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (8.4%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.7% of cases), personal reasons (3%) and conduct issues (2.4%). Rather rarely stated reasons are health problems (2.1% of cases), career change (2.1%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%), death (0.9%) and disagreement (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 30.9% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Anna Manning’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retire”
RGA said: “The Board of Directors of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE: RGA) announced today that Tony Cheng has been appointed to the role of President, effective January 4, 2023, succeeding Anna Manning, who remains Chief Executive Officer. Consistent with her long-held plans, Manning will retire from her role as Chief Executive Officer on December 31, 2023. The Board plans to appoint Cheng as Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2024. The Board has also appointed him to the Board of Directors effective immediately.”
Generally, retirements are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to accelerate their retirement plans. In fact, 32% of the time “retire” was used in CEO departure announcements over the past 12 months, the departing chief executive received a Push-out Score above the critical threshold of 5, indicating elevated pressure.
Share price increase since January 2022
The announcement follows an increase in Reinsurance Group of America Inc.’s share price of 26% since January 2022.
In the position of CEO since 2017
Anna Manning became CEO of the Company in 2017.
Prior to becoming President of the Company in December 2015 and Chief Executive Officer in 2017, Manning held the position of Senior Executive Vice President, Structured Solutions, which included the Company’s Global Financial Solutions and Global Acquisitions businesses.
Prior to assuming this role, Manning spent four years as Executive Vice President, U.S. Markets.
Manning joined the Company in 2007, and shortly thereafter assumed the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the International Division.
Prior to joining RGA, Manning spent 19 years in actuarial consulting at Tillinghast Towers Perrin, following an actuarial career in the Canadian marketplace at Manulife Financial from 1981 until 1988.
She holds a B.Sc. in Actuarial Science from the University of Toronto, is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.
Manning is a member of the Board of Trustees at Washington University in St. Louis, a member of the BJC HealthCare Board of Directors and a member of St. Louis’s Civic Progress.
74 words by Anna Manning
In the news release announcing her departure as CEO of Reinsurance Group of America Inc., Anna Manning received praise and thanks.
In the announcement of the leadership change, Anna Manning said 74 words.
“Lead the company into the next phase”
Anna Manning stated: “I have had the great pleasure of working closely with Tony for many years and have seen firsthand the deep respect that RGA’s senior leadership has for him. Tony’s tireless contributions over the years, combined with his strong leadership, his relentless client focus, and his innovative capabilities make him uniquely situated to lead the company into the next phase of its strategy. I am highly confident in the future of RGA under Tony’s leadership.”
Over the past 12 months, 26% of all outgoing CEOs remained silent in the departure announcement, according to data compiled by exechange. Departing CEOs who did make a statement said an average of 108 words. The longest statement was 382 words. The shortest statement was 23 words. Leadership transitions in which departing CEOs provide conspicuously short, excessively long or no explanations for their move are statistically associated with elevated pressure and show an increased incidence of Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5.
32% of CEOs are forced out or fired
When CEO departures are announced, exechange determines the Push-out Score on a scale of 0 to 10 to assess how likely it is that the chief executive was pushed out or felt pressure to leave the position, with 0 being most likely a voluntary move and 10 being most likely a forced exit. Anything over a 5 indicates that there are valid reasons to believe an executive may have been pushed out.
Of the 333 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (January 4, 2022, to January 3, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 5.6, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When time with family, performance issues or other opportunities were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.
Around 32% of the CEO departure events from the past 12 months received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher.
In other words, in the past 12 months, three in 10 departing CEOs were forced out or fired.
Pressure in the financials sector substantially below the critical threshold
Some industries are under generally higher pressure than others, and CEOs are feeling the strain. In the past 12 months, the communication, consumer staples and health care sectors showed the highest average Push-out Scores. By contrast, pressure on CEOs was lowest in the real estate, financials and utilities sectors, as measured by average Push-out Scores.
In the financials sector, which includes Reinsurance Group of America Inc., the average Push-out Score over the past 12 months was 4.3, which is substantially below the critical threshold of 5.
Nevertheless, even in this sector, some CEOs were compelled to leave their posts under what appeared to be severe stress. In the financials sector, 11 exiting CEOs received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher over the past 12 months, indicating that they were most likely forced out or faced strong pressure to step down.
Closer look at female CEOs
Female CEOs in the U.S. have been found to be more likely to be pushed out than male CEOs. Over the past 12 months, outgoing female CEOs have received an average Push-out Score of 6.3, substantially above the average Push-out Score of 5.6 for outgoing male CEOs.
Female CEOs have a 34% shorter tenure. Women in the role step down after an average tenure of 5.6 years, compared with 8.5 years for men, the exechange data shows, which covers 22 departing female CEOs and 311 departing male CEOs.
On a five-year view, departing female CEOs received an average Push-out Score of 5.8, which was significantly higher than the average Push-out Score of 5.3 for departing male CEOs. This suggests that women were more likely to be pushed out than men, even when using a longer observation period. This is evident from exechange data covering 1,403 CEO departures (84 of them women and 1,319 men) from 2017 to 2021. Female CEOs who announced their departure from 2017 to 2021 had a 26% shorter tenure, exiting after an average of 6.6 years, compared with 8.9 years for men, the exechange data shows.
Push-out Score for Anna Manning’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Anna Manning’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to RGA and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 2.2023 ($).