- After almost 18 years in the position
- Accolades and praise for Flanagan
- Andrew Schlossberg taking over
- Flanagan made a lengthy statement and said 345 words
(exechange) — Atlanta, Georgia, February 8, 2023 — Marty Flanagan, chief executive of Invesco, leaves his position. As announced by Invesco Ltd. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Martin L. (Marty) Flanagan leaves his post as chief executive officer at the investment management firm, after almost 18 years in the role, effective June 30, 2023.
It is the end of an era.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.5 years. Around 15% of CEOs left their posts after more than 15 years. This is according to data collected by CEO-exit research firm exechange.
exechange tracks CEO departures at the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., examines the reasons CEOs leave and determines the Push‑out Score™, a measure of pressure on departing chief executives on a scale of 0 to 10.
Marty Flanagan’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Andrew R. Schlossberg, currently Senior Managing Director and Head of the Americas at Invesco Ltd.
Doug Sharp, Senior Managing Director and Head of EMEA, will assume an expanded leadership role as Head of the Americas and EMEA, and global responsibility for ETFs, SMAs and digital capabilities.
The firm also announced that Stephanie Butcher, Chief Investment Officer, EMEA, and Tony Wong, Global Head of Fixed Income Investments, have been named Senior Managing Directors and Co-Heads of Investments. Invesco stated: “Together, Butcher and Wong will oversee the firm’s distinctive investment capabilities, building on the strength of our investment culture, processes and enterprise support model.”
Greg McGreevey, Senior Managing Director, Investments, has decided to retire from the firm. McGreevey will serve as an advisor to Butcher, Wong and the firm on investment topics through March 31, 2023, which will help ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities.
No reason given
In the announcement, Invesco did not explicitly explain the reason for the move.
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (26.4% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (15.7%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.5%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.6% of cases), personal reasons (3%) and conduct issues (2.1%). Rather rarely stated reasons are career change (2.1% of cases), health problems (1.8%), disagreement (1.2%), death (0.9%) and the desire for more time with family (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 31.2% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Marty Flanagan’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retire”
Invesco said: “Marty Flanagan, under whose strong leadership Invesco has grown to become one of the world’s leading global investment management firms, has decided to retire as President and CEO on June 30, 2023.”
Generally, retirements are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to accelerate their retirement plans. In fact, 34% 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 decline since February 2018
The announcement follows a decline in Invesco Ltd.’s share price of 46% since February 2018.
In the position of CEO since 2005
Marty Flanagan became CEO of the Company in 2005.
Flanagan will also step down from the Invesco Ltd. Board on June 30, 2023.
He will continue as Chairman Emeritus through Dec. 31, 2024, providing advice and guidance to the company.
Martin Flanagan has been a director and President and Chief Executive Officer of Invesco since 2005.
He is also a trustee and vice-Chair of the Invesco Funds (the company’s U.S. open- and closed-end funds). Flanagan joined Invesco from Franklin Resources, Inc., where he was president and co-chief executive officer from 2004 to 2005.
Previously, he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at Franklin — co-president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer and senior vice president – from 1993 to 2003. Flanagan served as director, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger, Ltd., before its acquisition by Franklin in 1992.
Before joining Templeton in 1983, he worked with Arthur Andersen & Co. He serves as Trustee of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and as a member of the executive Board at the SMU Cox School of Business.
Flanagan is a member of the International Advisory Council of China Securities Regulatory Commission.
He serves as Chair of Engage Ventures, an innovation platform bringing together Atlanta-based corporations to support startups.
He sits on the Executive Council for the Metro Atlanta Chamber and served as 2020 MAC Chair. Flanagan formerly served as chair and vice chair on the executive committee and on the Board of Governors for the Investment Company Institute.
He serves as a Board member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress and is a former ACP Chair. Flanagan is a CFA charterholder and a certified public accountant.
He earned a B.A. and B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University (SMU).
345 words by Marty Flanagan
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Invesco Ltd., Marty Flanagan received accolades and praise.
In announcing the leadership change, Marty Flanagan made a lengthy statement and said 345 words.
“Build on our strong momentum”
Marty Flanagan stated: “I’ve worked side-by-side with Andrew throughout my career at Invesco and have found him an exceptional leader who is highly focused on delivering the best possible experience for our clients. I have every confidence that Andrew and the Executive Leadership Team will build on our strong momentum to take the business forward… Throughout his leadership roles at Invesco, Doug has dedicated himself to meaningfully strengthening the client and employee experience across various parts of our organization, most recently in our EMEA region. We’re pleased to build on his successful leadership of EMEA over the past three years, as well as his deep experience across Invesco, to expand his responsibilities to include our Americas business, as well as global responsibility for ETFs, SMAs and digital capabilities. Doug will work with Andrew Lo, Senior Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, to oversee a more globalized client-facing organization with a focus on better understanding and meeting client needs, employing both a regional and cross-regional approach. This will enable us to take the breadth of skills and the quality that exists across our people, our technology and our capabilities and create a more tightly coupled set of linkages across Investments, Distribution, Marketing and Product to sharpen the focus on meeting the needs of our clients… For decades, one of Invesco’s greatest strengths has been our distinctive investment teams, which have the autonomy to form differentiated views across global markets. Between them, Stephanie and Tony have nearly 50 years’ experience leading investment teams and managing portfolios. Working with our investment leaders across the globe, Stephanie and Tony will build on our unique strengths, while advancing the collective benefits of our investment platform globally to deliver exceptional investment outcomes for our clients… Throughout his career at Invesco, Greg has worked tirelessly to build a highly connected, client-focused investment culture that has had a meaningful impact on our ability to deliver superior performance and outcomes to clients. We thank him for his exceptional contributions to the organization, our investment teams, clients and overall business. We wish Greg well in his retirement.”
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 109 words. The longest statement was 510 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.
35% 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 337 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (February 8, 2022, to February 7, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 5.8, 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 35% 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, one in three 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, health care and consumer staples sectors showed the highest average Push-out Scores. By contrast, pressure on CEOs was lowest in the real estate, utilities and financials sectors, as measured by average Push-out Scores.
In the financials sector, which includes Invesco Ltd., the average Push-out Score over the past 12 months was 4.2, 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.
Push-out Score for Marty Flanagan’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Marty Flanagan’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to Invesco and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 7.2023 ($).