Pioneering RSM CEO Jean Stephens set to step down next year
Long-serving RSM chief executive Jean Stephens has announced her intention to step down next year after more than a decade and a half in the role, leaving behind a blueprint for ongoing future growth.
Global mid-tier accounting and consulting network RSM has begun the process of selecting its next CEO, with current long-serving chief Jean Stephens announcing she will step down from the role within the next six months.
A trailblazer in terms of female leadership in the professional services sector, Stephens has helmed RSM for more than a decade and a half, with her successor to oversee what is now an $8 billion business.
Appointed to the top job in 2006 after serving as COO, Stephens has guided significant growth during her tenure, with the network’s combined global revenues more than tripling from $2.4 billion over the past 17 years and its headcount swelling from 23,000 to almost 60,000 professionals spread across 120 countries. Launched at the beginning of the year, RSM’s 2030 Global Strategy aims to further double its income by the end of the decade.
“We are grateful to Jean for her outstanding service to RSM over the last 17 years as CEO,” commented former US managing partner Joe Adams, who was appointed as global chairman in March. “Her significant and sustained leadership has been instrumental in building the RSM network into the dynamic, global organisation it is today and her engagement in the development of our Global 2030 Strategy will help lead us into the future.”
Starting out as a manager at US member McGladrey’s LA office in 1994, Stephens was later instrumental in spearheading the major global rebranding which saw the entire network aligned under the RSM banner and new logo from 2015. But perhaps her greatest legacy will be in opening the industry path on female leadership, being until recently the only woman to head one of the world’s top ten largest professional services networks.
“It has been an extreme honour and privilege to lead such an ambitious and entrepreneurial network, and to work so closely and for so long with RSM’s exceptional leaders and professionals from around the world.” Stephens stated. “With a new strategy to 2030 firmly in place, it is the natural next step in our evolution that we welcome in a new global CEO who will complete that journey and take RSM to a new high from the strength of today.”
Stephens shared her decision with RSM’s global leadership at the firm’s recent World Conference in Barcelona, with a departure date set for sometime after her handover in May to ensure an effective transition.
