8th May 2025
Earlier this week, Henry Sallitt spoke at the Real Deals Summit, joining a panel on ‘Best practices for talent, development, and effective succession’ alongside Dominic Dalli and Karen Sands, moderated by Claire Madden, to share perspectives on leadership development and succession planning in private equity.
The main discussion was around:
- How to identify key positions and assess required skills
- How to evaluate potential successors—both internal and external
- Developing leadership capabilities in future leaders
- The role of co-leadership in smoother transitions
- How to address LP concerns around succession planning during due diligenc
They discussed how firms can better identify critical leadership roles, assess the right skills for the future, and create space for internal and external talent to grow into those roles.
The panel also reflected on how PE firms can strike the right balance between leadership and management, and whether our industry places enough emphasis on the latter.
From co-leadership models that support smoother transitions to the importance of clear communication with LPs, the conversation focused on making succession planning practical, thoughtful and lasting.
It’s a topic we think about carefully at FPE - especially when it comes to fostering leadership from within and building teams that scale with the businesses we support.