Curzon & Ferguson Partners’ research shows that nearly 30 percent of today’s infrastructure investment management leaders are also the founders of their firms. These founder-CEOs have a median tenure of 16 years — double that of non-founders. With many founders reaching critical inflection points in their careers, a wave of succession events is on the horizon.
The research further shows that infrastructure leadership demands a distinct combination of operational expertise, financial capability and long-term trust-building with limited partners (LPs). In a sector where capital is committed for decades, succession planning becomes inseparable from strategic planning. Without a deliberate approach, founder-led firms face heightened risks to performance, culture and investor confidence.
Five succession planning practices have been identified as particularly important for infrastructure managers:
Make succession continuous, not episodic.
