The corporate governance terrain is shifting. Boards and businesses are facing new challenges and opportunities, nuanced demands, and moving targets from their stakeholders. To help you and your companies prepare, RRA annually brings together the best thinking from our leadership advisors and a diverse array of influential governance experts. With thanks to those thought leaders, we are pleased to share the tenth edition of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Global Corporate Governance Trends.

Corporate governance and demands on corporate leaders vary significantly from country to country, but three topics stand out as the most important to businesses and their boards across the globe in 2025:

• Meeting Higher Standards for Boards and Directors

As the number and complexity of business challenges grows, the pressure on board agendas and members increases. These broader agendas are requiring board members to devote more time to their work. Discussions around these strategically important and novel topics are also putting pressure on the traditional “noses-in, fingers out” board oversight model—as directors understandably want to get more deeply involved, executives are equally reasonably sensitive to overreach. Boards continue to grapple with how to alter their board composition to oversee their entities, with some looking for more specialised experience. Sometimes, that pressure for new experience is a regulatory requirement. All of these new (or, sometimes, renewed) issues are happening alongside longstanding and still critical oversight topics and a growing list of investor demands for board oversight priorities and a diversity of backgrounds, skills, and experiences.

• Charting a Nuanced Approach to ESG and Risk Management

2024 was a significant year for elections across the globe, and voters in many jurisdictions voted for “change” candidates. These and other shifts have meaningfully increased the level of political and economic uncertainty across the globe, especially for businesses operating in multiple international markets. While this will have broad effects across a range of topics, 2025 will see a continuing divergence of focus on ESG issues, particularly those related to climate and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In some markets, such as the EU and Brazil, there are pending changes to regulatory frameworks. In the US, pullback on mandatory activities began in the first days of the Trump Administration. Across the globe, companies will need to meet minimum legal requirements but also consider the diverse landscape of stakeholder preferences.

• Devoting More Time to Executive Succession Planning and Transition Support

Across the globe, boards are spending more time on proactive executive development and holistic CEO succession planning activities. We observed particularly notable levels of energy on this subject in markets outside of the US last year, as companies grappled with internal and external pressures on CEO tenure and recognised that starting succession planning early reduces risk and increases the odds of smooth, value supportive CEO transitions. This is true in companies large and small, public and private, and we expect this trend to accelerate in 2025.

This paper further delves into these and other corporate governance stories likely dominating board agendas in 2025, organised by market. For more context and advice, please get in touch with the authors or your trusted advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates.

Corporate Governance Trends

The article was first published by Russell Reynolds Associates.

Photo by Fernando @cferdophotography on Unsplash.