For an audio version of the newsletter, click here. 

Leaves are not the only things changing this fall. A string of succession announcements in the last few weeks culminated in five major companies announcing CEO changes earlier this week – CSX, Barrick, GSK and Newmont on Monday and Spotify on Tuesday.

It has now been a few years running that we have seen elevated CEO turnover. Data from workplace and labor expert Challenger, Gray & Christmas says 1,504 CEOs have left their post in the first eight months of the year, the highest number yet since they started tracking the stats. At the same time, data from executive search firm Russell Reynolds says that the average tenure of outgoing CEOs in the first half of 2025 fell to 6.8 years from 7.7 years during the same period last year.

But data doesn’t tell the full story. Here are a few themes that emerged in the major CEO changes we saw in recent weeks.

The four major announcements from Monday were met with varying levels of surprise by followers, but they all come from companies whose industries are in flux. Two of the world’s leading miners, Barrick and Newmont, announced CEO changes on Monday amidst a run-up in the price of gold and broad industry consolidation. GSK's and CSX’s changes can also be seen through the lens of industries that are being reshuffled or realigned through M&A and regulatory pressures.

Other companies are being proactive and making succession moves when they are flying high. Such was the case with Wall Street darlings Oracle and Spotify, both of whom announced their CEO transitions as their shares are at or near all-time highs. (Oracle’s CEO transition announcement came less than two weeks after an earnings report for the ages).

Speaking of Oracle and Spotify, an unexpected emerging theme is that co-CEOs are now back in fashion, and in a very interesting way. Spotify’s and Oracle’s Daniel Ek and Safra Catz are both being replaced by co-CEOs, but they are also retaining varying levels of influence by transitioning to executive chairman and executive vice chair, respectively. This rhymes with Comcast’s announcement that Michael Cavanagh has been appointed co-CEO alongside Brian Roberts. We will leave the discussion of the co-CEO setup to our friends at DealBook and Breakingviews.

Finally, it is noteworthy that many of the succession announcements in recent weeks have involved internal candidates, and according to Russell Reynolds, 76% of incoming CEOs in the first half of 2025 have been internally promoted.

Have a great weekend, 

GPP Team 

Reuters: Activist investors had busiest quarter ever, launching 61 campaigns

Reuters, who cited a report from our friend Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory, and his team at Barclays, reported on the historic number of activist campaigns over the past quarter. The Barclays research also found that settlements and board seats for activists were up sharply since last year while forecasting a busy rest of 2025. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Six Flags Is Under Activist Pressure to Sell Its Real Estate

Land & Buildings, an activist investor with a ~2% stake in the theme park operator, revealed in a public letter it is urging Six Flags to sell or spin off its real estate. The firm, who originally pushed this idea in 2022, believes Six Flags has underperformed since the company’s 2024 merger with Cedar Fair. Read More

Reuters: Exclusive: Activist Irenic builds stake in Workiva, pushes for board seats

Irenic has now met with Workiva management multiple times, pushing the company to get rid of its dual-class structure, give the activist board representation, and explore strategic alternatives such as a potential sale. Read More



Financial Times: M&A deals top $1tn in third quarter

Global mergers and acquisitions activity reached a record high after an unusually busy summer for dealmakers. Over the first three quarters this year, 47 deals were valued at more than $10bn, and total activity reached nearly $3.1tn. Wachtell Lipton’s Jacob Kling told the FT that the M&A market is “on fire” with “transformational deals getting done in a way we haven’t seen in years.” Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Electronic Arts Goes Private for $55 Billion in Largest LBO Ever

A group of investors, including Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners, announced plans to take videogame maker Electronic Arts private in what would be the largest private equity backed buyout in history. Read More

Financial Times: BlackRock’s GIP nears $38bn takeover of utility AES

Global Infrastructure Partners, a BlackRock-owned investment group, is nearing a $38 billion deal to acquire energy utility group AES, in what would be one of the largest infrastructure takeovers ever. Read More



CNBC: Berkshire Hathaway to buy Occidental’s OxyChem for $9.7 billion, in Buffett’s biggest deal in three years

On Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway announced a $9.7 billion all-cash deal to acquire Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical unit, OxyChem, marking the firm’s biggest transaction since 2022. The announcement comes days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the two companies were in talks. Read More



The Wall Street Journal Opinion: The SEC’s Class Act on Class Actions

The Journal’s Ed-board reacts to SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ announcement that the agency will not seek to halt initial public offerings if a company’s bylaws bar shareholders from bringing lawsuits in federal court, arguing that the move positively reduces the risk of class-action lawsuits for companies that issue stock in the public markets, is seen as one to eliminate “the plaintiff-attorney veto on IPOs.” Read More

Vanguard: U.S. Regional Brief

Vanguard’s Global Head of Stewardship, John Galloway, shares takeaways from recent proxy voting data from Vanguard-advised funds, including increased disclosures on evaluating, more boardroom discussions on AI risks and opportunities and more. Read More



IPO

Bloomberg: US IPOs Face SEC Approval Deadline Ahead of Government Shutdown

As a result of the government shutdown, the SEC issued guidance that it would halt most of its agency functions as a result of the government shutdown, which threatens to delay companies currently going through the IPO process and put a pause on the recent surge in IPO activity. Read More

Financial Times: Lex: AstraZeneca’s US listing should make London nervous

Camilla Palladino discusses how British companies moving to list on the NYSE, such as AstraZeneca, Flutter, Wise and others, “puts the UK on notice” as the valuation of LSE-listed companies continues to trail their U.S. peers. Read More



FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS

As our readers know well, the best way to the heart of the GPP team is through their stomachs. This week was no different as we celebrated our eighth anniversary at Massara, a southern Italian restaurant inspired by Chef Stefano Secchi’s childhood memories of visiting Campania.

After a cocktail hour that featured the restaurant’s specialty negronis, we were treated to a selection of wines that accompanied the chef-prepared menu. While we often advise companies on difficult decisions, nothing had prepared us for the wealth of food options laid before us. So, we did what we always do: break into teams and consider every perspective. GPPers mixed and matched dishes, sampling and sharing everything from the candele pasta to the tender steak and the sweet tortas so that no flavor was left unexplored.

Finally, we toasted to a banner year that included plenty of excellent client work, an expanded team, and, as always, exceptional food and wine. Here’s to another eight more. 



PEOPLE MOVES

• Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek announced he will transition to executive chairman and will be succeeded by new co-CEOs Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström. Read More
• Comcast announced that Michael Cavanagh will serve as co-CEO alongside Brian Roberts, as the company prepares its spinoff of NBCUniversal’s cable networks. Read More
• GSK revealed that chief operating officer Luke Miels would take over as CEO from Emma Walmsley, effective January 1^st. Read More
• Steve Angel was appointed President and CEO of CSX Corp, effective immediately. Read More
• Barrick Mining announced that its CEO Mark Bristow would step down with company veteran Mark Hill appointed COO and interim CEO. Read More
• Newmont Corporation shared that CEO Tom Palmer will retire at the end of the year and will be succeeded by Natascha Viljoen. Read More

• October 9: 25th Anniversary of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE
• October 21: 13D Monitor Active/Passive Investor Summit, New York, NY
• October 28-29: Berkeley Fall Forum on Corporate Governance, San Francisco
• October 28: Knight-Bagehot 50^th Anniversary Celebration, New York, NY



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