Board succession

On 14 April 2023, the YouGov plc Board announced the appointment of Steve Hatch as CEO with effect from 1 August 2023. This appointment follows a period of Board succession planning which began in 2022. The appointment announcements issued since October 2022 are replicated on this page for information.

Update to the Board of Directors - August 2023

YouGov, the international research and data analytics group, confirms further to the Company's announcement on 14 April 2023, the following changes to its Board of Directors effective 1 August 2023:

Steve Hatch will join the Company as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Stephan Shakespeare, who will assume the role of Non-Executive Chair.

In line with the previously disclosed Board succession plan, Roger Parry will step down from the role of Non-Executive Chair after a 16-year tenure and will leave the Company.

Rosemary Leith will step down as Senior Independent Director after a near nine-year tenure. Nick Prettejohn will assume the role of Senior Independent Director, as part of the previously disclosed Board succession plan. Additionally, Nick will join the Board's Audit & Risk Committee as a member. Rosemary will continue to hold the role of Chair of the Board's Remuneration Committee until April 2024 when she expects to step down from the Board. 

Furthermore, YouGov announces the following changes to roles in the senior leadership team, also effective 1 August 2023:

Sundip Chahal's role will change from Chief Operating Officer to Chief Business Officer with a remit for leading integration and growth strategies at YouGov. Initially, Sundip will be focussed on the planned integration of GfK's Consumer Panel Business following YouGov's intended transformative acquisition of the business as announced on 6 July 2023. Additionally, Sundip will work closely with Steve Hatch during the leadership transition period to ensure the success of YouGov's organic growth strategy. Sundip will remain on the YouGov Board as an Executive Director in this new role.

Lynda Vivian will be promoted to the non-Board role of Chief Operating Officer with a focus on the delivery of YouGov's Platform model in line with the Company's strategic growth plan, while continuing her work ensuring operational excellence across the business. Lynda has held several senior leadership roles during her 15 years at YouGov and has over 20 years' experience of working within the data analytics sector

Stephan Shakespeare, Non-Executive Chair, said: "On behalf of the Board and the entire YouGov team, I would like to thank Roger Parry for his 16 years of outstanding service. Roger has been highly influential in the growth and success of our business as a trusted advisor, mentor, and partner to the YouGov leadership team throughout our journey. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.

Looking ahead, I would like to congratulate Sundip and Lynda on their new roles and officially welcome Steve Hatch as our new Chief Executive Officer. It is an honour to step into the role of Non-Executive Chair and continue my journey with YouGov in its strongest ever position. With the right Board and executive team now in place and the transformative acquisition of GfK's Consumer Panel Business in planning stage, I am excited by what we can achieve in the next phase of our strategic growth plan."

Following the above changes, the composition of the YouGov plc Board and its Committees will be as noted below:

Board

Executive Directors:

Steve Hatch (Chief Executive Officer)

Sundip Chahal (Chief Business Officer)

Alex McIntosh (Chief Finance Officer)

Non-Executive Directors:

Stephan Shakespeare (Non-Executive Chair)

Shalini Govil-Pai

Rosemary Leith (Remuneration Committee Chair)

Ashley Martin (Audit & Risk Committee Chair)

Devesh Mishra

Andrea Newman

Nick Prettejohn (Senior Independent Director)

Board Committees

Audit & Risk Committee

Ashley Martin (Chair)

Rosemary Leith

Nick Prettejohn

Nomination Committee

Stephan Shakespeare (Chair)

Shalini Govil-Pai

Rosemary Leith

Ashley Martin

Devesh Mishra

Andrea Newman

Nick Prettejohn

Remuneration Committee

Rosemary Leith (Chair)

Ashley Martin

Andrea Newman

Nick Prettejohn

For current board composition, see this page

Appointment of Steve Hatch as CEO – April 2023 Announcement 

YouGov, the international research and data analytics group, is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Hatch as Chief Executive Officer. This appointment follows a comprehensive international search process, supported by leading international executive search firm Egon Zehnder, which considered a wide range of both internal and external candidates.

Steve will join the Company on 1 August 2023, succeeding Stephan Shakespeare who will assume the role of Non-Executive Chair, as previously announced. Stephan will work closely with Steve in the initial months of his appointment to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities at the Group.

Roger Parry will therefore be standing down from the role of Non-Executive Chair on 31 July 2023, in line with the previously disclosed Board succession plan. Nick Prettejohn will take on the role of Senior Independent Director on 1 August 2023, taking over the role from Rosemary Leith who will stay on the Board following this planned transition and will continue as Chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Steve has over 30 years’ experience leading high growth marketing, media, and technology companies. He was appointed as Facebook’s first Regional Director for the UK in 2014, overseeing a fundamental evolution of the platform. In 2016, Steve became Meta’s Vice President for Northern Europe managing all business operations and strategy for the region, driving the introduction of Meta’s e-commerce products and development of the company’s insight tools.

Prior to joining Facebook, Steve spent 15 years at WPP, his final role being CEO of media agency, MEC, which he led to become Agency of the Decade in 2013. Before joining WPP, Steve worked in strategy roles at Omnicom and Y&R.

Steve is currently a Non-Executive Director at Reach plc, a position he has held since 2015. Steve will be stepping down from this role before he joins YouGov.

Regarding the appointment of Steve Hatch:

Roger Parry, Non-Executive Chair, commented:

“On behalf of the YouGov Board, I am delighted to announce the appointment of Steve Hatch as our incoming Chief Executive Officer, following a comprehensive international search process. Steve brings over 30 years of relevant leadership experience and valuable sector expertise in consumer profiling, e-commerce, and business transformation with a proven track record in scaling technology platforms and digital media businesses. These capabilities make Steve perfectly suited to lead YouGov through its third strategic growth plan and beyond.  

It has been a privilege to serve as Chair of YouGov over the last 16 years. As I prepare to hand over to Stephan Shakespeare, I have full confidence that we have set the right strategic direction to deliver another long-term period of profitable growth for the business and have now established the right Board and executive team to see that plan implemented to its full potential. I remain fully engaged on supporting the Board succession transition activities leading up to the handover at the start of August.” 

Steve Hatch commented:

“YouGov is a business I have closely followed and admired for some time. The company is in a strong position with a clear strategic direction and significant investment in technology and international reach driving robust client demand and consistent top line growth performance in recent years. I look forward to working closely with Stephan, the wider Board and the full YouGov team on the great opportunities ahead in the third strategic growth plan as we look to create further value for customers, partners, shareholders, and colleagues.”

Stephan Shakespeare, Chief Executive Officer and Non-Executive Chair Designate, commented:

“It is a pleasure to welcome Steve to YouGov. I am confident that I will be handing over the reins with YouGov in its strongest ever position and with a clear strategy to realising our vision of building the world's leading marketing data and research platform. It will be an honour to step into the role of Non-Executive Chair in August and continue my journey with the Company. I am hugely excited for what the future holds for YouGov.”

Update on Board Succession

As announced on 23 February 2023, the YouGov plc Board has made key Non-Executive Director appointments effective on 27 February 2023. The Appointment of Non-Executive Directors Announcement is replicated here for information.

Appointment of Non-Executive Directors - February 2023 Announcement

YouGov, the international research and data analytics group, announces the appointment of Shalini Govil-Pai and Devesh Mishra as Non‐Executive Directors with effect from 27 February 2023.

Shalini Govil-Pai has over 25 years' experience in the consumer technology space. She is currently General Manager and Vice President of TV at Google and is based in the US. Previously, Shalini served as Senior Director for Technology Solutions at YouTube where she was responsible for growing the creator base by 10x, and as a Technical Director at Pixar.

Devesh Mishra has over 25 years of global operating leadership experience across technology, product, and business operations. He joined Deliveroo in 2021 as Chief Product and Technology Officer and is based in the UK. Previously, Devesh spent 16 years at Amazon where his most recent role was Vice President of Global Supply Chain managing a multi-billion-dollar spend. He also holds an advisory board role at Zero100, a community-based education and research platform.

Ms Govil-Pai and Mr Mishra will join the Board's Nomination Committee with effect from 27 February 2023.

Commenting on the appointments, Roger Parry, Chair, said:

"On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Shalini and Devesh. Shalini's technical and consumer expertise, and Devesh's operational and engineering experience, both gained within the US and UK technology industries, will bring hugely valuable and relevant skills to YouGov as we progress into the next long-term strategic plan. With these two Non-Executive Directors, our leadership team will benefit from new perspectives and diversity of experiences, as well as increased governance capabilities which will strengthen the Board commensurate with the Company's growth and strategic ambitions."

In line with the previously disclosed Board succession plan, Roger Parry will be standing down from the role of Non-Executive Chair. Stephan Shakespeare will assume the role of Non-Executive Chair, upon a new CEO commencing in post, currently anticipated to be on 1 August 2023, subject to the outcome of the CEO search process. The addition of two new Non-Executive roles in Shalini and Devesh ensures a majority of independent members on the Board following the Chair transition.

The search for a new CEO is ongoing and the Nomination Committee is considering a wide variety of both external and internal candidates as part of an international search process. A further update will be provided in due course.

Board Succession Planning

As announced on 11 October 2022, the YouGov plc Board has made key Board succession planning decisions, as outlined in the Board Succession Planning Announcement, and the FY22 Results Announcement, released on that date. The Board Succession Planning Announcement is replicated here for information.

Board Succession Planning - October 2022 Announcement

YouGov, the international online research data and analytics technology group, is pleased to provide an update on Board succession planning in relation to the previously announced planned retirement of the Non-Executive Chair, Roger Parry. This announcement supplements the disclosures regarding Board succession included in the Company’s Preliminary Results Announcement for the year to 31 July 2022 which was released today.

Over the last 12 months, the Board’s Nomination Committee, with support from leading international executive search firm Egon Zehnder, has conducted a rigorous assessment of the Board’s composition and the skills, experience, structure and roles that are needed to support the Company’s next phase of growth and ensure continued, effective leadership of the Group. As part of this process, the Committee identified the criteria required for the role of future Chair of YouGov to continue the delivery of the Company’s long-term vision to become the world’s leading market research platform.

During this assessment Stephan Shakespeare, YouGov’s co-founder and current Chief Executive Officer, indicated to the Committee his desire to assume a more strategic, non-executive leadership role within the Group, allowing him to shift focus from day-to-day operational oversight to more long-term development and governance once the next phase of the Group’s growth strategy had been set out.

After an extensive assessment process, the Board unanimously agreed that it is in the best interests of the Company’s long-term stability for Stephan to take over the role of Chair when Roger steps down. Consequently, Stephan has been appointed as YouGov’s Non-Executive Chair Designate.

Stephan will assume the Chair role upon a new CEO commencing in post, currently anticipated to be on 1 August 2023 which is the start of the next financial year. The search for a new CEO has been launched and the Nomination Committee is currently considering a wide variety of both external and internal candidates as part of an international search process. The appointment of the CEO Designate is expected in the spring of 2023 to allow sufficient time for a hand-over period. To ensure an orderly transition and allow adequate time to recruit the right candidate for the CEO position, Roger will be put forward for re-election at the upcoming AGM (8 December 2022) with the underlying expectation that he shall retire on 1 August 2023.

As previously announced, Nick Prettejohn joined the Board in June 2022 as a Non-Executive Director. It is intended that Nick will take on the role of Senior Independent Director (“SID”) at the same time as Stephan’s transition to Chair. Rosemary Leith, the current SID, will stay on the Board following this planned transition and will continue as Chair of the Remuneration Committee. In her role as SID, Rosemary led discussions within the Nomination Committee about the succession of the Chair.

To further strengthen the Board and maintain the highest levels of corporate governance, it is also planned that a new independent Non-Executive Director will be appointed in the short term and this search is currently underway. Adding this new Non-Executive role, in addition to Nick, ensures a majority of independent members on the Board following the Chair transition, while bringing further skills and diversity to the boardroom, and it is commensurate to the Company’s current size and growth plans.

The Company will provide updates in respect of the CEO and NED searches in due course.

Regarding the Chair succession plan:

Rosemary Leith, Senior Independent Director, commented:

“After a series of detailed discussions and exploration of various options for the Chair succession, the Nomination Committee, and subsequently the full Board, unanimously agreed that no other candidate could match the qualities which Stephan will bring to the role. As founder of the Company, he is uniquely positioned due to his extensive knowledge of the business, his in-depth understanding of investor and other stakeholder expectations, and his role in shaping the strategic direction of the Company. The planned changes, with Stephan at the helm as Chair, will result in a Board that is very well placed to lead the next phase of growth for YouGov.”

Roger Parry, Non-Executive Chair, commented:

“As CEO, Stephan has been an exceptional leader of the business and under his tenure as sole CEO since 2010 YouGov has grown top-line more than fivefold. The Board is cognisant of the potential challenges of a Founder & CEO moving to Chair and we have put in place protocols and resources to set the transition up for success. I have full confidence in Stephan as the next Chair and I look forward to supporting with the ongoing succession planning activities leading up to the planned handover.”

Stephan Shakespeare, CEO and Non-Executive Chair Designate, commented:

"It will be an honour to step into the role of Chair and continue my journey with the company I co-founded in 2000. I am hugely excited by the opportunity to lead the Board and to provide continuity and stability to YouGov as we continue our evolution into a platform business under the leadership of the next CEO. With the Nomination Committee’s work on succession and composition, we have a strong governance model for this next phase of our growth.

“As I prepare to transition from my current role as CEO, I am immensely proud of the business we have built over the last 22 years and motivated for the journey ahead. I am confident that I will be handing over the reins with the Group in its strongest ever position and a clear strategy to realising our vision of building the world’s leading market research platform. In the meantime, I am fully engaged in my position as CEO and focussed on the current year.”

Read more on the board succession planning

• Update to Board of Directors - August 2023
• Appointment of CEO Announcement
• Appointment of Non-Executive Directors Announcement
• Board Succession Planning Announcement
• FY22 Results Announcement