Online event
Tuesday 21 April
10.00am - 10.45am BST

Beyond gut feel: Building evidence-led succession in a changing leadership landscape

Succession decisions have traditionally relied heavily on experience, reputation and instinct. But as business models evolve and leadership roles shift, organisations are under increasing pressure to make more defensible, evidence-led decisions about who will lead them next.

In this session, we’ll explore how succession planning is evolving from a reactive process into an ongoing organisational capability. Drawing on perspectives from executive leadership advisory, behavioural performance insight and skills-based workforce data, we’ll discuss how organisations can bring greater clarity to what future leadership actually requires.

Together, we’ll explore how organisations can combine leadership psychology, behavioural insight and skills visibility to strengthen succession decisions, ensuring organisations can identify, develop and prepare future leaders while maintaining the agility needed in an ever-changing business environment.

What we'll discuss

Embedding a culture of succession
Why the most resilient organisations treat succession planning as a leadership mindset and cultural capability, not a one-off exercise triggered by departures.
Defining what “good” looks like for future leadership roles
As business needs evolve in a fast-moving digital landscape, critical role profiles are constantly changing. We’ll explore how organisations can redefine the capabilities and leadership mindset required for future leadership, and build an agile succession approach that adapts as those needs evolve.
Strengthening succession decisions with evidence and insight
How combining behavioural assessment, leadership expertise and skills data can help organisations move beyond intuition alone, giving boards and executive teams greater confidence in their leadership pipelines.

Introducing the panel

Amy King

Co-Founder and Chief Behavioural Science Officer, Performology Global

Amy King is Co-Founder and Chief Behavioural Science Officer at Performology, where she helps the world’s leading retailers identify and scale the human drivers of high performance.

An award-winning behavioural scientist, consultant and entrepreneur, Amy has over 20 years’ experience advising boards and senior leaders on talent, leadership and culture. She has worked with organisations including Asda, B&Q and Kingfisher to strengthen leadership, talent decisions and organisational performance. Her deep expertise spans across talent assessment, leadership, behavioural change, mental wellbeing and resilience.

Amy is passionate about building cultures that are not only high-performing, but sustainable, creating workplaces where people, performance and wellbeing thrive together.

Shane Crabb

Managing Director, Kensho Leadership

Shane is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and leadership advisor with more than 20 years' experience helping teams and organisations grow, transform, and navigate complexity. Having spent his career across public multinationals, PE-backed boutiques, and founder-led start-ups in Europe and North America — including five formative years working with Silicon Valley's tech leaders and high-growth companies across the US — Shane brings commercial depth to the human side of leadership. His work spans executive assessment, team effectiveness, and succession planning, grounded in a belief that leadership is intentional, interpersonal, and built from clear insight.

Paul Wahltuch

Chief Product Officer, Greenbeam

Paul is a former infantryman who has spent more than 25 years in product creation across several domains and regions. Highly skilled at optimising product and engineering culture, Paul’s key focus is on enabling Greenbeam’s product teams to shine.

Facilitated by:

Sophie Millington

Director, UK Greenbeam

Sophie is a growth and workforce leader focused on helping organisations make clearer, more confident decisions about their people.

At Greenbeam, she works with organisations across the UK to improve how capability is understood, evidenced, and acted on, reducing reliance on assumption and enabling more targeted decisions across development, mobility, and workforce investment.

Her experience spans SaaS, fintech, and workforce solutions, where she has led commercial strategies in complex, fast-moving environments. Having founded and exited her own business, Sophie brings a strong commercial lens and a practical understanding of the risks organisations face when capability is unclear, from misdirected investment to delivery and succession exposure.