Korn Ferry’s Top 15 for 2015: The most in-demand C-level positions for the year ahead.

2015 Trends: In 2015, four key trends will drive the C-suite positions market:

1. Security – Security issues are driving the need for executives in data and cyber-security, along with the need to meet compliance standards. In the past year, we’ve all read about high-profile data security breaches and the costs associated. Executives who can create and manage systems to stay ahead of cybercrime as well as meet security issues in capital markets are in short supply.

2. Sales/Rainmakers – The need for top-line growth has made strong marketing and sales executives indispensible. Executives that can drive revenue are in the driver’s seat for C-level marketing and sales positions.

3. Engaging customers – Consumers today have a great deal of power in their choices. Engagement goes beyond revenue growth and focuses on creating distinct consumer preferences and meaningful brand experiences. For this reason, demand has increased for executives with the know-how to create engagements.

4. Healthcare – Worldwide, managing healthcare systems and costs has emerged as a critical issue. As the healthcare industry continues to transition, health providers, biotech companies and global corporations need a strategic plan to meet key performance goals. Executives with the ability to do this are in high demand.

Korn Ferry designs, builds, attracts and develops executive talent. As the leader in recruiting world-class leadership, having assessed more than 2.5 million professionals since its founding, Korn Ferry places an executive in a new senior-level position every seven minutes.

Recently we queried our executive search consultants to assemble a list of the most in demand C-level positions for 2015. Below are the results of that query; the top 15 C-level positions for 2015, as identified by our recruitment professionals. Other than the top five, which represent the highest demand executive positions for 2015, the rest of the list appears in no particular order.

To arrive at the list, Korn Ferry adhered to the following process:

1. An initial list was populated by reviewing the volume of incoming search requests received by Korn Ferry from across the globe.

2. Korn Ferry’s senior consultants conducted in-depth interviews with board-level executives, HR directors, and senior hiring managers to determine where clients anticipated the greatest need for C-level talent in the year ahead.

3. Korn Ferry practice leaders culled the list to the top 15 C-level positions anticipated to have the greatest demand in 2015. Key in the qualitative analysis was consideration of

a) fastest growing industries, and well as b) fast growing positions across industries.

Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Revenue Officer – When Korn Ferry surveyed global executives over the past year about what would cause them to hire more aggressively, they responded overwhelmingly, “consumer demand.”

Companies have spent the last few years disproportionately focused on cost cutting. With consumer demand now increasing (slowly), companies have had to shift to an external growth focus. The Chief Commercial Officer, or Chief Revenue Officer used to be the VP of Sales. Today, this position has been elevated – these executives must find new salespeople, new markets and new partnerships to grow.

Chief Innovation Officer – Many companies have a legacy “cash cow” that is now racing against the clock of inevitability. Good ideas are replaced with better ideas and new technology. It happened to the typewriter, it’s happened over and over again in the music business, and it is happening to the desktop PC market. Companies are finding that they not only need to innovate, but sometimes even cannibalize existing businesses – or another company will. Chief Innovation Officers must understand and embrace the pace of change and find ways to grow though innovation.

Top 15 for 2015: The complete list. Other than the top five, which represent the highest demand executive positions for 2015, the rest of the list appears in no particular order.© Chief Commercial Officer© Chief Innovation Officer© Chief Digital Officer© Chief Cyber Security Officer © Chief Sustainability Officer© Chief Executive Officer© Chief Human Resource Officer© Chief Information Officer© Chief Technology Officer© Chief Medical Officer© Chief Risk Officer© COO, Manufacturing© COO, Energy© Chief Marketing Officer© Executive Director of Development/Funding

The Top 5: © Chief Commercial Officer© Chief Innovation Officer© Chief Digital Officer© Chief Cyber Security Officer © Chief Sustainability Officer

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Chief Cyber Security Officer or Chief Information Security Officer – The fact that whole systems can be brought down, reputations tarnished and customers privacy breached, all in an instant, makes this one of the most highly sought after executive positions. With high-profile security breaches more frequently in the news, companies are taking steps to avoid becoming the next headline.

In the end, security executives must protect and defend the company’s digital infrastructure, and perhaps more importantly, the data a company safeguards for its clients and their businesses.

Chief Digital Officer – The responsibilities of this role are morphing as a fast as the social media landscape itself. These executives are digitizing legacy applications, or rapidly enabling new apps for utilization on mobile devices. They also play a key role in orchestrating social media strategy. If a company can’t connect with customers and create engaging content – it will no longer be relevant. The CDO masterminds winning strategies to drive engagement and sales in a chain reaction of people influencing people.

Chief Sustainability Officer and/or Head of Corporate Responsibility – Today there is often no clear distinction between these two positions. The Chief Sustainability Officer is more often aligned with environmental initiatives. The Head of Corporate Responsibility is usually aligned to economic, environmental and social impact overall. In a connected world, both of these roles are of increased importance to senior leadership.

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Top 15 for 2015: The other ten:© Chief Executive Officer© Chief Human Resource Officer© Chief Information Officer© Chief Technology Officer© Chief Medical Officer© Chief Risk Officer© COO, Manufacturing© COO, Energy© Chief Marketing Officer© Executive Director of Development/Funding

Chief Executive Officer – CEOs are always in demand. Especially today, given the complexity of business, the necessity to move at the speed of markets, and the reality that investors’ timelines for demonstrating results are no longer year-to-year, but quarter-to-quarter.

In an age of functional specialization, the majority of executives are now focused narrowly, leaving fewer generalists with a broad background who can be groomed and ready to assume the role of CEO. This has created a shortage of those who are qualified.

Chief Human Resource Officer – Ask any executive what makes the difference in their company, and you’ll find at or near the top of the list, is “people.” Companies are now taking this to heart. The CHRO must deliver the right people at all levels, who can drive both vision and strategy. He or she not only needs to find them, but also develop them.

Today the CHRO has a big, continuous challenge – how to hire, develop, and motivate the next generation of leadership. Motivating younger generations will require CHROs to be more creative in their thinking than ever before. Millennials are not driven by money; our evaluations of millions of executive candidates often conclude that challenge and mission are key motivators. That has redefined the mission of today’s CHRO to keep Millennials engaged—for the long term.

Chief Information Officer – Technology is now the lifeblood of many organizations in the digital era. Companies simply cannot execute against their business strategy without a state-of-the-art data-mining program. Technology now drives informed decision-making, and this makes the CIO an absolutely critical role.

Chief Technology Officer – The CTO has to build emerging technologies to support growth, even as the pace of technological change continues to bewilder. We have moved from the PC-era to the post-PC era to the post-tablet era in a matter of a few years. For this reason, the best CTOs must have vision. Today, the great ones are looking and living in 2020, not in 2014.

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Technology© Chief Information Officer© Chief Technology Officer

Always in demand/never out of style: © Chief Executive Officer© Chief Human Resource Officer

Chief Medical Officer – The Chief Medical Officer can be found most often working at a hospital system or at a biotech company. At a hospital system, he or she serves two roles. One as the principal medical advisor to the Executive Director/Senior Vice President working in the administration; the other as the Senior Physician Executive of the hospital leadership team, providing clinical and strategic oversight to key hospital functions. In addition, the CMO leads an interdisciplinary effort for organizational growth in reaching strategic goals. At a biotech company, he or she is responsible for developing the company’s global product portfolio strategy to bring products to market in compliance with regulatory, legislative and medical/health requirements. The CMO oversees portfolio management activities to ensure appropriate objectives and resources are deployed to advance all of the company’s products in development.

Chief Risk Officer, or Head of Credit & Quantitative Risk Management – These are highly skilled executives who can properly model for risk and expose weaknesses in a system. These professionals are experts who can run an internal stress test for a financial institution to measure its resiliency to market fluctuations. Few executives have both the deep analytical expertise and the vision to integrate with overall business strategy, making this a position that is in high demand.

Chief Operating Officer, Manufacturing – Today’s COO in manufacturing has to be both an operational and technological guru. He or she must be deeply immersed in innovation and smart manufacturing. The complexity of the manufacturing process is also tied to coordination with global logistics, so these new tech-savvy COOs must also have deep supply chain expertise.

COO, Energy – With a huge pocket of demand in energy infrastructure and MLPs, Chief Operating Officers are needed in oil exploration, at both midstream companies, and services companies (fracking). These market opportunities are being driven by recent shale discoveries, for example the Marcellus Shale Region in the Northeastern US.

Because the energy market has such dynamic and competitive pricing, oil and gas companies are seeking great operators who can achieve new efficiencies to lower costs and maintain margins. In this space, other top senior executive positions remain in hot demand, across the board.

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Life Sciences and Healthcare© Chief Medical Officer

Capital Markets © Chief Risk Officer

Industrial/Energy © COO, Manufacturing© COO, Energy

Chief Marketing Officer – More and more, CMOs determine how to integrate sales and revenue through customer engagement, sales optimization, and brand positioning. Especially in demand are those who understand managing an omni-channel platform.

On the consumer side, the glut of marketing channels today is truly overwhelming; just step into any taxicab, or elevator, or even the wash closet. This deluge of advertising has made it more difficult to reach consumers who are increasingly tuned out to broad marketing messages.

On the sales and marketing side, these executives must be able to create relationships with distribution partners, retailers, promotional partners and more. Great CMOs are constantly building a complex web of marketing, communication, sales and distribution to put them in a position to win in the marketplace.

Executive Director of Development/Funding – In the not-for-profit sector, simply put, this person brings in the donations. In the past, this role was limited to getting big donations from big donors. This is still important, but getting those mega donations takes a new sense of creativity. In addition, these executives also need to think small, and create programs that drive thousands of small donations.

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Consumer© Chief Marketing Officer

Non-Profit © Executive Director of Development/Funding

© Korn Ferry 2014. All rights reserved.

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