Succession at Bain & Company

As Fortune is first to report, Orit Gadiesh, Bain’s chairman of 32 years, is announcing her new “emeritus” role, and making way for Manny Maceda, who until last year was the CEO of the management consulting firm. (Christophe De Vusser, meanwhile, replaced Maceda as CEO, having been appointed to a once-renewable 4-year term last Summer.)

“What we found is, thoughtful rotation, which we do at all levels of our firms, is healthy,” Maceda told CEO Daily. “It helps you think succession planning. It helps you build the firm for the next generation. So in all of our leadership roles, there’s generally a timeframe in mind. I’m sure in this one as well. But it won’t be 30 years.” 

CEO-turned-chairman Maceda does not worry too much about a Disney or Starbucks scenario, where the CEO-turned-chair leaves too little maneuvering space for the new CEO. “I’ve watched the movie with many of our clients, and in our own firm,” Maceda said. “We have a CEO who is in charge, that’s Christophe. There are checks and balances with a separate nominating committee. And in my case, I’m not executive chairman, but I’ll be a resource for him, and share the load. That’s the intent,” Maceda said.

Beyond the checks and balances, another element of the succession contributed to Maceda being able to let go of his executive mindset, he told me: he took a few months of sabbatical leave after stepping down as CEO last summer, giving a clean break for his successor to ease into the job without Maceda in the daily flow.

As for the future, Maceda—who started working at Bain in 1989—pointed to two challenges Bain’s CEO will face: Helping clients navigate increasingly complex supply chains, and operating in today’s fraught political environment. “The time where you make a statement [on a social issue], it has largely passed,” he says. “We’ve been taking our own advice. We go straight down the middle. — Peter Vanham

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.

Top news

Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine. President Trump talked to Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy on the phone yesterday in an attempt to reach a peace plan that will end the war in Eastern Europe. The plan, as outlined by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, involves both sides giving up territory, no return to the 2014 borders of Ukraine (when Russia seized Crimea), no NATO membership for Ukraine, no U.S. troops in Ukraine, and Europe to foot the bill for Ukraine’s military security and reconstruction.

The plan is unpopular in Europe because it seems to involve NATO’s senior partner doing very little while Europe bears all the costs. It also rewards Putin for invading his neighbours. Hegseth denied it was a “betrayal” of Ukraine this morning. Next stop, Saudi Arabia, where Trump will talk to Putin.

Musk wants the “weeds” removed. Speaking via video link to a conference in Dubai, Elon Musk said entire federal agencies should be be deleted. “I think we do need to delete entire agencies, as opposed to leave part of them behind,” he said. “It’s kind of like leaving a weed ... If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back. But if you remove the roots of the weed — it doesn’t stop weeds from ever going back, but it makes it harder.”

“Pay for slay” will end. The Palestinian Authority will stop making cash payments to Palestinians whose family members have been killed or imprisoned in attacks on Israel.

Bankers are flying gold across the Atlantic. The price of gold in New York is $20 per pounce greater than in London, and that has created an arbitrage opportunity for banks with access to gold bars. Execs from JP Morgan and HSBC have been lining up outside the Bank of England to withdraw gold bars and fly them on commercial jets to the U.S.

Why strangers keep saying your name, over and over again. It’s not just you. Some politicians, executives and sales people think that saying your name repeatedly in conversations is an effective trick to get you onside. But a lot of people think it’s creepy. 

From Fortune

Trump wants rate cuts but inflation is up
President Donald Trump again called on the Fed to cut interest rates in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, the same day that new, hotter-than-expected inflation data put any cuts at all this year in jeopardy. Trump indicated that interest rate cuts could offset the price increases that could arise from his tariff policies. Fortune

Robinhood’s blockbuster earnings
Online brokerage and trading app Robinhood reported $1.01 billion in Q4 revenue on Wednesday, a 37% increase from the previous quarter. Much of that success is thanks to a 500% increase in cryptocurrency revenue on the platform during that time. Fortune

Report: The U.S. is becoming more corrupt
The United States received a score of 65 out of 100 on the newest edition of Transparency International’s Corruptions Perceptions Index, a ranking of public sector corruption across 180 countries. That’s the lowest ranking the country has ever received and ranks the US 28th overall for anti-corruption. Fortune

The markets 

• The S&P 500 ticked down by 0.3% to 6,051.97 yesterday … S&P futures were down fractionally by 0.029% this morning … The Euro Stoxx 600 and Euro Stoxx 50 both hit new all-time highs today … Shares in Reddit collapsed by 14% in after-market trading following weaker than expected user numbers reported in its Q4 earnings call.

From the analysts 

• EY on inflation: “While CPI inflation has made steady progress toward 2%, it has remained stuck around 3% for a few months. As Powell stated during his testimony to Congress, the FOMC is in ‘no hurry’ to adjust its policy stance. With inflation higher than desired, policymakers will continue to see solid labor market conditions as a reason to proceed carefully with policy recalibration,” per Gregory Daco.
• Convera on the “puzzling dollar decline”: “Investors may be concerned that US growth could slow due to tariffs, inflation, and tight policy, or that the USD valuation might be overstretched. Bullish USD positioning is crowded. As mentioned, considering trade risks and the Fed pause, the dollar requires evidence of stronger US macro conditions or significant global risk deterioration to rise notably,” per George Vessey.
• Wedbush on Uber: “We think engagement trends are tracking ahead of our estimates thus far, which currently imply a deceleration in 1Q25 gross bookings growth to +14% Y/Y (vs. St +16% Y/Y), from +18% Y/Y in 4Q,” per Scott Devitt et al.

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