Korn Ferry Report Reveals CEO Succession Trends Across Top 100 Tadawul-Listed Companies in Saudi Arabia

Younger, locally promoted, and increasingly diverse: The face of executive leadership in the Kingdom is changing

Korn Ferry, the global organisational consulting firm, has released a new report analysing how CEO appointments are evolving across Saudi Arabia’s business landscape, offering fresh insight into the trends shaping the next generation of leadership.

The report, titled “CEO Succession in Saudi Arabia 2025”, explores how organisations are approaching the critical issue of CEO succession. As part of the study, Korn Ferry conducted an in-depth analysis of publicly available data on CEO succession events that took place among the top 100 publicly listed companies by market capitalisation on the Tadawul stock exchange.

While the report centres on the mechanics and challenges of succession planning, it also uncovered clear trends in the profile and characteristics of newly appointed CEOs in the Kingdom.

Key insights from the report include:

• Rise of Younger Saudi Leaders: The average CEO age dropped to 47 in 2024, with 65% stepping into the role for the first time, showing growing confidence in younger, homegrown leadership.
• Internal Promotions Dominate: 71% of new CEOs in Tadawul’s Top 100 were internal hires, reflecting a strong commitment to growing and retaining internal talent.
• Internal vs. External Balance: While internal succession offers speed and continuity, benchmarking against external talent ensures objectivity and highlights development needs.
• Nationalisation gains ground: 88% of recently appointed CEOs are Saudi nationals, underscoring the country’s focus on building and elevating local leadership.
• Gender gaps remain, but change is underway: None of the newly appointed CEOs on Tadawul in the past year were women. However, Korn Ferry notes a rising number of Saudi women taking on Director and C-suite roles, indicating progress in building a more inclusive leadership ecosystem.
• Building Leaders for Vision 2030: Internal development is currently the quickest path to strengthening Saudi Arabia’s leadership pipeline, while external hires remain key for injecting fresh perspectives.

“As Saudi Arabia accelerates its transformation under Vision 2030, we are seeing companies recalibrate what leadership looks like,” said Danny Leinders, Head of Executive Search Middle East & North Africa. “This shift towards younger, locally promoted, and first-time CEOs reflects both growing leadership confidence and a maturing talent strategy. Boards and leadership teams that embrace this change, and plan for it, will be best positioned for long-term resilience.”

The report also encourages organisations to view CEO succession not as a one-off decision, but as an integrated component of corporate governance, talent development, and business continuity planning.