Succession Plan Builder

I've written the full succession package, including the board briefing, as one confidential document. Everything in it is a draft for you, the Compensation & Nominating (C&N) Committee and the board to decide. No candidate is contacted, and none of it should reach a candidate yet.

What the package says:

The CEO plan depends on one person. Rebecca Strand is the only credible internal candidate for the end-2027 handover. I placed her at

ready in 1–2 years: her results are strong (Commercial Lines grew 49% since 2022), but her 360 names gaps in finance, lenders and operations. I did not count Marcus Oyelaran as a ready candidate. He says he prefers to stay COO and was rated medium potential. So the sponsor's "two candidates by 30 June 2027" needs an external search. The firm should be engaged by about February, which means authorizing it at the 15 January meeting.
2.

The CEO decision also affects other roles. If Strand becomes CEO, President, Commercial Lines (about 42% of revenue) has no successor. If she isn't chosen, the risk of losing her rises. Either way, that bench needs to exist before the selection in Q3 2027.
3.

The CFO bench is one person who is being recruited. Lena Haverkamp is the only successor, and two PE-backed competitors approached her this year. Devan Kuroda is not placed because he has said he doesn't want the role. Patricia Nwosu's commitment through the exit covers the near term.
4.

Rating: high risk overall. No role has a successor ready now. CEO, CFO and COO each depend on a single person. Commercial Lines, CIO and CHRO have no named internal candidate. I scored CEO, CFO and President Commercial Lines as the most critical roles. COO scores one point below that line, and the board should confirm where it sits.

What I left blank on purpose. Your inputs don't give these, so I didn't make them up:

• emergency successors for any role;
• the board chair;
• who decides incapacity;
• interim spending limits;
• leave and notice thresholds.

Each appears as

TO BE DESIGNATED in the emergency protocols and in the draft board resolution. The proposed split of the $350K development budget is placeholder figures to replace with vendor quotes. The external search fee is shown as outside that budget.

Before 15 January, three decisions block the rest:

What candidates may be told, and when. Several development actions put candidates in front of lenders and the board, and naming emergency successors requires telling them. This conflicts with "no candidate has been told".

• Who the emergency successors are, plus the board chair, the incapacity decision-maker and the interim limits.
• Whether to approve and fund the external CEO search.

There are 20 open questions in total, listed at the end of the document. Employment counsel should review the assessment wording (for example "abrasive"), the notice drafts and the resolution before anything is circulated.

Checks I ran: each role's score adds up to its stated total; the readiness counts in the summary table match the role-by-role sections; the budget adds to $350,000; and no readiness or risk judgment uses age, health or family circumstances. Anything I inferred rather than took from your inputs is marked as an assumption.

The file is Markdown. If you want a Word version or a separate board deck, I can produce it from this. It sits in a temporary scratch folder, so move it somewhere secure before sharing.

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The file it wrote: Wexford-Ridge-Succession-Package-CONFIDENTIAL.md

CONFIDENTIAL — Leadership Succession Package

Wexford Ridge Insurance Brokers

Prepared for the Board meeting of 15 January 2027

Classification: CONFIDENTIAL — Board, Compensation & Nominating Committee, CEO and CHRO only
Draft status: DRAFT v1 for review, prepared 1 October 2026. Claude drafted this document. The CEO, the CHRO, the Compensation & Nominating (C&N) Committee and the board make every selection, placement, retention and spend decision.
Candidate notice: No candidate has been told they are being considered. Nothing in this document goes to any candidate. Several development actions are visible to the people doing them, so the board needs to decide how candidates are told before those actions start (see Open Questions Q-01).
Reviews needed before the document is used: employment counsel (assessment language, resolution, notice drafts) and corporate/finance counsel (lender, carrier and licensing notices).

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How to read this document

Sources. Every rating cites one of the following:

• [Brief]: the organization brief (strategy, revenue, board, budget, incumbent timelines).
• [TR-2026]: the 2026 talent review (9-box placements).
• [360-n]: a 360 review with n raters.
• [Stated]: the person's own stated aspiration or commitment.

Scope and fit check

In scope: the full system. That covers the critical-role inventory, bench by role, development plans, emergency protocols, transition playbooks, the governance calendar and the board briefing.

Not in scope: no urgent hire, termination, compensation negotiation or reorganization is pending. Retention offers are kept out of scope. This document only flags where the committee should consider one.

Emergency protocol comes first. The inputs do not mention an existing emergency succession protocol, so this document assumes none exists (ASSUMPTION, Q-02). The skill rule is to draft that protocol before anything else. It is therefore the first recommended action for 15 January.

Roles covered: the six incumbent roles named in the brief. Other roles may be critical to the 2027 strategy, such as a personal-lines leader, an M&A/corporate development lead, regional office leaders, or the General Counsel if there is one. They are not inventoried because no data was supplied (Q-03).

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Critical Role Inventory

Scoring. Each role is scored 1–5 on six dimensions, for a total out of 30.

• Tier 1 (25–30): deep planning.
• Tier 2 (18–24): standard planning.
• Tier 3 (12–17): general pipeline.

The scale anchors are qualitative because the inputs give no vacancy-cost or time-to-hire data:

• 1 = the role supports the strategy, disruption is manageable, the skills are common, relationships transfer easily, it is easy to replace, and little revenue or value is at risk.
• 5 = the role drives the strategy, disruption is severe, the expertise is rare, the relationships are critical, it is hard to replace, and a large share of revenue or exit value is at risk.

All scores are PROPOSED.

Tier summary:

• Tier 1 (deep planning, full emergency protocol): CEO, CFO, President Commercial Lines.
• Tier 2 (standard planning, emergency coverage table): COO, CIO, CHRO.
• No roles in Tier 3.

Cascade risk. All three internally sourced CEO and CFO moves open another critical role:

• Strand to CEO opens President Commercial Lines.
• Oyelaran to CEO opens COO.
• Haverkamp to CFO opens VP FP&A.

So the CEO decision is really a decision about three or four roles at once.

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Succession Pipelines

The readiness tiers are Ready Now, Ready 1–2 Years, Ready 3–5 Years and Developmental.

Every placement is PROPOSED. Each named candidate appears in exactly one tier for one role.

1. CEO — Tier 1

Planned need: the CEO intends to step down at the end of 2027, about 15 months from this draft [Stated].

Sponsor requirement: at least two CEO candidates, internal or external, by the end of Q2 2027 (30 June 2027) [Brief].

READY NOW — none

READY 1–2 YEARS — Rebecca Strand, President Commercial Lines (PROPOSED)

9 years in role [Brief]. Rated high performance / high potential [TR-2026]. Says she wants the CEO role [Stated].

Why 1–2 years and not Ready Now: the gaps the 360 names (finance, lenders, operations) are exactly the areas a sponsor and a 2028 buyer will test. They can be closed through deliberate exposure during 2027, before a decision is due.

Why not 3–5 years: her track record and potential rating support the 2027 timing.

READY 3–5 YEARS — none

DEVELOPMENTAL — Marcus Oyelaran, COO (PROPOSED)

4 years in role [Brief]. Rated high performance /

medium potential [TR-2026]. "Open to CEO but prefers to stay COO" [Stated].

Why Developmental: the recipe defines this tier as someone who "may not have aspiration for this path". His stated preference is to stay COO, and the talent review rates his potential as medium.

Reclassify him if both of the following happen:

• (a) a direct conversation, led by the C&N Committee chair and the CEO, confirms real CEO interest; and
• (b) an external executive assessment raises his potential rating.

Until then, it would overstate the bench to count him as one of the sponsor's "two candidates".

EXTERNAL MARKET

Required. On current evidence there is

one credible internal candidate for the end-2027 transition. To meet the sponsor's two-candidate requirement by 30 June 2027, the board needs a confidential external benchmark search.

Suggested profile: CEO or division-president experience in a PE-backed brokerage, with acquisition-led growth and a completed sponsor exit (PROPOSED).

ASSUMPTION: a CEO search takes several months from engaging a firm to presenting a slate. That means a firm should be engaged by about February 2027. The search fee is probably not part of the $350,000 development budget (Q-10).

Single-successor dependency: YES. The CEO plan depends on Rebecca Strand alone.

CEO scenario table

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2. CFO — Tier 1

Planned need: low before the exit. Patricia Nwosu is "committed through the sponsor exit" [Stated]. The likely need is after the exit, plus emergency cover now.

READY NOW — none

READY 1–2 YEARS — Lena Haverkamp, VP FP&A (PROPOSED)

3 years in role [Brief]. Rated high performance / high potential [TR-2026].

Why 1–2 years: the gaps are specific (audit ownership, lender relationship). The exit preparation in 2027–28 is an unusually good setting for closing them.

READY 3–5 YEARS — none

DEVELOPMENTAL — none

CONSIDERED, NOT PLACED — Devan Kuroda, Corporate Controller

11 years in role [Brief]. Rated high performance / moderate potential [TR-2026]. "Does not want the CFO role" [Stated]. He is not placed because he has declined the role.

He is a

key-person retention concern in his current role, not a successor. Whether he would accept a time-limited interim CFO role in an emergency is unknown. Someone must ask him; nobody should assume it (Q-09).

EXTERNAL MARKET

Likely needed for depth: the target is ≥1 Ready Now and ≥2 Ready 1–2 Years, against 0 and 1 today. ASSUMPTION: a CFO with sponsor-exit and lender experience is easier to find externally than a CEO, but the timing of the exit adds pressure.

Single-successor dependency: YES, and that one successor is a documented flight risk.

CFO scenario table

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3. President, Commercial Lines — Tier 1

READY NOW / 1–2 YEARS / 3–5 YEARS / DEVELOPMENTAL — NOT ASSESSED

No internal candidates were supplied. This is the most exposed role in the package:

• It is about 42% of revenue [Brief].
• It is a named 2027 growth priority [Brief].
• It depends on producer and client relationships [360-18].
• It is the role most likely to open in the CEO transition, through Strand's promotion, her departure, or her not being selected.

External market: required as a backstop. The internal slate below Strand needs to be identified first (PROPOSED: CHRO-led review of commercial-lines leaders, Q4 2026 to Q1 2027).

President Commercial Lines scenario table

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4. COO — Tier 2

READY NOW / READY 1–2 YEARS — none

READY 3–5 YEARS — Tariq Benedetti, SVP Operations (PROPOSED, low-confidence evidence)

2 years in role [Brief]. Rated medium performance / high potential [TR-2026].

Why 3–5 years: current performance is medium, which does not support a 1–2 year placement. Re-run the 360 with a broader rater pool before this placement is relied on.

External market: possible. It becomes likely if Oyelaran moves to CEO or leaves.

Single-successor dependency: YES, and the placement rests on thin evidence.

5. CIO — Tier 2 — NOT ASSESSED

No candidates were supplied. External market: probably the default backstop. The internal bench needs identifying.

6. CHRO — Tier 2 — NOT ASSESSED

No candidates were supplied. Note: the CHRO owns succession below the CEO [Brief]. A CHRO vacancy during 2027 would also stall this process. Who runs the process in her absence is TO BE DESIGNATED.

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Pipeline Summary

Four candidates are placed (Strand, Haverkamp, Benedetti, Oyelaran). One was considered and not placed (Kuroda).

Depth test (target: ≥1 Ready Now, ≥2 Ready 1–2 Years, diverse slate):

• No role meets the target.
• No role has a Ready Now successor.
• Single-successor dependencies: CEO, CFO, COO.
• Empty pipelines: President Commercial Lines, CIO, CHRO.
• Slate diversity:

not assessed. No diversity data or targets were supplied, and none is inferred from names (Q-12).

Pipeline health rating: HIGH RISK (PROPOSED)

The reasons

• The CEO plan depends on one internal candidate who is not yet ready.
• The role she would vacate has no bench.
• The CFO bench is one person with documented competitor interest.
• Three of the six critical roles have no named internal successor.
• The deadline is fixed: CEO change at end of 2027, then exit in 2028.

Priority actions (PROPOSED, in order)

Approve the emergency succession protocols (CEO, CFO, President Commercial Lines) and designate interim successors on 15 January 2027.
2.

Authorize a confidential external CEO benchmark search, with the firm engaged by about February 2027, so the board has ≥2 candidates by 30 June 2027.
3. Accelerate Strand's development on finance, lenders and operations from Q1 2027.
4. Identify a President Commercial Lines bench by Q2 2027, before the CEO selection.
5. Consider retention for Haverkamp (C&N Committee and CEO decide), alongside audit and lender ownership in 2027.
6. Hold a direct CEO-aspiration conversation with Oyelaran, and secure his continuity as COO either way.
7. Identify internal CIO and CHRO benches, and broaden Benedetti's 360.

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Development Plans

Investment by readiness:

• Ready 1–2 Years (Strand, Haverkamp): accelerated, targeted gap-closing.
• Ready 3–5 Years (Benedetti): broad foundation.
• Developmental (Oyelaran): assessment and retention as COO, not a CEO accelerator.

The

current ratings below are qualitative and cite their source.

Targets are the role requirement (PROPOSED). Every plan is PROPOSED and needs the CHRO's approval, and the C&N Committee's approval for CEO candidates. Dollar figures are planning placeholders (ASSUMPTION) to be replaced with vendor quotes.

Confidentiality. Several actions put a candidate in front of lenders, the sponsor or the board. People will notice. The board should decide the framing before any action starts: for example, "enterprise leadership development for senior leaders" rather than "CEO succession" (Q-01).

Plan 1 — Rebecca Strand: CEO candidate (Ready 1–2 Years)

Profile: President Commercial Lines, 9 years. Rated high/high [TR-2026]. Grew the unit from $88M to $131M [Brief]. Wants the CEO role [Stated]. Plan owners: Graham Thorne (sponsor) and the C&N Committee chair (oversight). Target: decision-ready by Q3 2027.

Objective 1 — Finance and lender fluency

Objective 2 — Operations and integration

Objective 3 — Board and sponsor exposure

Objective 4 — Confirm readiness

Retention: no departure risk is documented. ASSUMPTION: risk rises sharply if she is not selected. The C&N Committee should agree its position (decision only, no offer) before the Q3 selection.

• Contingencies: if she declines or leaves, see the CEO and President Commercial Lines scenario tables.
• Placeholder budget: $100,000 (external assessment, coaching, executive programme).

Plan 2 — Lena Haverkamp: CFO candidate (Ready 1–2 Years), with retention focus

Profile: VP FP&A, 3 years. Rated high/high [TR-2026]. "Excellent analytically", but "has never owned the audit or lender relationship" [360]. Approached by two PE-backed competitors in 2026 [Brief]. Plan owner: Patricia Nwosu.

Retention (HIGH): two documented competitor approaches in 2026 [Brief]. The C&N Committee and the CEO should decide whether and how to secure her through the exit. Claude proposes no mechanism or amount. A clear career conversation is likely the cheapest lever, but it requires breaking the current confidentiality (Q-01).

Contingency: if she leaves, the CFO bench is empty and an external interim/permanent plan is needed (CFO scenario table).

• Placeholder budget: $55,000.

Plan 3 — Marcus Oyelaran: COO continuity, plus a CEO aspiration test (Developmental for CEO)

Profile: COO, 4 years. Rated high performance / medium potential [TR-2026]. Led 11 integrations [Brief]. "Can be abrasive with producers" [360-14]. Prefers to stay COO [Stated]. Plan owner: Graham Thorne.

Retention: no departure risk is documented. ASSUMPTION: continuity of integration capability through the exit matters to the 2027 strategy of about 6 acquisitions [Brief]. Consider how the CEO decision is communicated to him either way.

• Placeholder budget: $35,000.

Plan 4 — Tariq Benedetti: COO pipeline (Ready 3–5 Years)

Profile: SVP Operations, 2 years. Rated medium performance / high potential [TR-2026]. 360 from 6 raters [360-6]. Plan owner: Marcus Oyelaran.

Placeholder budget: $30,000.

Development budget — PROPOSED placeholder allocation of $350,000

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Emergency Succession Protocols

The protocols cover the CEO in full. The CFO and President Commercial Lines protocols reuse the CEO structure and add role-specific items. Tier 2 roles get a coverage table.

Not supplied in the inputs, so left as TO BE DESIGNATED:

• the identity of the board chair;
• named emergency successors;
• who determines incapacity;
• leave and notice thresholds;
• the delegation-of-authority dollar limits;
• the General Counsel, if there is one;
• the communications lead.

No dollar thresholds have been invented. The authority split refers to the company's existing delegation-of-authority matrix (Q-15).

A. CEO Emergency Succession Protocol

A1. Triggering events

A2. Emergency successors

The person designated must confirm in writing (A10). That conversation means telling someone (Q-01).

A3. Authority framework

A4. Actions by hour

Hours 0–4: confirm and contain

Hours 4–24: organize

Hours 24–48: communicate

A5. First-week priorities

1. Hold an emergency board session; the interim authority is confirmed in writing.
2. Hold 1:1s with each executive and confirm continuity commitments.
3. Make producer-retention calls in the largest offices (ASSUMPTION: producers are the main flight-risk group in a brokerage leadership event).
4. Make a go / pause decision on each in-flight acquisition, with board approval.
5. Set a weekly update rhythm between the interim CEO and the board chair.

A6. First-month priorities

1. Stabilize: no unplanned departures of producers or executives.
2. Run the first 30-day review of operations and acquisitions.
3. The board decides the permanent path (see A8).
4. The sponsor reassesses the exit timeline.
5. Run a lessons-learned review of this protocol.

A7. Notice drafts (DRAFT — for counsel review before use; do not send)

Internal (employees):

Subject: Leadership update
Today the Board of Directors [FACTUAL STATEMENT — e.g., "accepted the resignation of Graham Thorne as CEO" / "confirmed that Graham Thorne is on a leave of absence"]. Effective immediately, [INTERIM NAME], [TITLE], will lead the company as Interim CEO. The Board has full confidence in our leadership team. Our offices, our clients and our carriers are served exactly as before, and our plans for 2027 continue. [INTERIM NAME] will speak with you in the coming days. Please direct any client or media questions to [CONTACT].
— [BOARD CHAIR], on behalf of the Board

Producers and office leaders (call script outline): what happened (factual, no speculation); who is in charge; what does not change (compensation plans, client service, carrier relationships); who to call.

Lenders / carriers (letter outline): notice of the interim appointment; continuity of the finance team and contacts; a statement on covenant reporting (CFO). Counsel confirms the wording against each contract.

Do not speculate on: personal circumstances, internal candidates, the timeline for a permanent CEO, or the exit process.

A8. Permanent-search timeline (PROPOSED)

Exact durations are ASSUMPTION until the search firm confirms them.

A9. Annual review

• C&N Committee review every Q4.

First tabletop exercise in Q1 2027 (PROPOSED scenario: CEO sudden incapacity while an acquisition is in progress).

• Contacts confirmed each quarter.

A10. Confirmations

• Approved by board resolution on [DATE].
• Signatures: board chair; corporate secretary.
• Confirmed by the primary and secondary emergency successors: [TO BE DESIGNATED].

B. CFO Emergency Succession Protocol (CEO structure applies; differences below)

Successors:

• Primary interim CFO: TO BE DESIGNATED.
• Secondary interim CFO: TO BE DESIGNATED.

Facts for the board

• Haverkamp has not yet owned the audit or lenders [360].
• Kuroda has declined the CFO role; whether he would serve as interim is unknown [Stated, Q-09].
• An external interim CFO or an outside advisor is an option.

Triggers and decision-maker: the same as the CEO protocol. The CEO and board chair decide jointly (PROPOSED).

Authority split:

Hour 0–4 additions:

• Confirm banking signatory and payment-approval coverage.
• Secure treasury credentials.

Hours 4–48 additions:

• Lender notice, if the credit agreement requires it (ASSUMPTION).
• Briefing for the audit partner.
• Briefing for the sponsor's finance contact.

First week:

• Confirm the covenant-reporting calendar.
• Review the financing status of every acquisition in progress.

C. President, Commercial Lines Emergency Succession Protocol (CEO structure applies; differences below)

Successors:

• Primary interim leader: TO BE DESIGNATED.
• Secondary interim leader: TO BE DESIGNATED.

No internal candidates have been identified (NOT ASSESSED). The board may choose a short-term CEO-led or COO-co-led arrangement while a successor is named.

Triggers: the same as the CEO protocol. The decision-maker is the CEO, with notice to the board chair (PROPOSED).

Authority split:

Hours 0–48 additions (relationships are the risk):

• Calls to the top producers and the largest client accounts by the CEO and the interim leader.
• Carrier notice where the relationship depends on the person.
• ASSUMPTION: check for non-solicit/non-compete coverage if the departure is a resignation to a competitor (counsel).

First month: retention conversations with key producers; a commercial-lines pipeline review.

D. Tier 2 coverage table

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Transition Playbooks

Playbook 1 — Planned CEO transition (Thorne to successor, effective about the start of 2028)

Pre-transition (Q1–Q3 2027, the 6–12 months before):

• Run the development plans and the external benchmark search.
• Present the slate to the sponsor by 30 June 2027 [Brief].
• C&N Committee recommends; the board selects in Q3 2027 (PROPOSED).
• Agree Thorne's non-executive role and its boundaries (Q-06).
• Draft announcement messages and FAQs for employees, producers, carriers, lenders and acquisition sellers.
• Name a successor for any role the new CEO vacates, before the announcement.

Transition (Q4 2027, the final 1–3 months):

• Announce, with timing coordinated with the sponsor around exit preparation.
• Hand over the board, sponsor, lender and carrier relationships in joint meetings.
• List pending decisions: the 2028 budget, acquisitions in flight, exit-preparation workstreams.
• Formally transfer authority, effective on the date set by board resolution.

Post-transition:

• 30-day check-in: C&N chair and new CEO. Stakeholder stability.
• 60-day check-in: leadership team settled; cascade successors in place.
• 90-day check-in: board review of the first 90-day plan and exit-readiness.
• Thorne's availability: as agreed for his non-executive role. PROPOSED: clear rules so the new CEO's authority is not diluted.

Knowledge transfer checklist:

CEO-specific additions:

• Transition of the board relationship and the CEO's board seat (the board currently includes the CEO [Brief]).
• Sponsor relationship.
• External profile in the market among acquisition targets.

Playbook 2 — Cascade role (e.g., President Commercial Lines if Strand is selected)

• Pre-transition: name the successor before the CEO announcement. Hold joint client and producer meetings through Q4 2027.
• Transition: hand over book by book, prioritizing the largest accounts. Communicate early with producers.
• Post-transition: 30/60/90-day producer retention and revenue check-ins.
• Equivalent playbooks apply to COO (if Oyelaran moves) and VP FP&A (if Haverkamp moves).

Playbook 3 — Planned CFO transition (after the exit)

Nwosu is committed through the exit [Stated]. Start this playbook once the exit date is known. Role-specific additions:

• audit partner;
• lenders (likely new lenders after the exit, ASSUMPTION);
• the new owner's reporting requirements;
• financial-systems access.

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Succession Timeline

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Review Calendar and Metrics

Annual cycle (from 2028; 2027 follows the timeline above)

Responsibilities matrix

R = responsible, A = accountable, C = consulted, I = informed.

Pipeline metrics (baseline from this draft)

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Board Briefing

CONFIDENTIAL — BOARD USE ONLY. Succession Review, 15 January 2027. Prepared for the C&N Committee and the full board.

DRAFT.

1. Executive summary

Pipeline health: HIGH RISK (PROPOSED).

Key takeaways:
1.

The CEO plan rests on one internal candidate. Rebecca Strand is a strong candidate with clear gaps (finance, lenders, operations). Marcus Oyelaran prefers to stay COO and is rated medium potential. Meeting the sponsor's two-candidate requirement needs an external benchmark search started by about February.
2.

The CEO decision triggers a cascade. If Strand is selected, President Commercial Lines (about 42% of revenue) has no successor. If she is not selected, the risk of losing her rises (ASSUMPTION). Either way, that bench must exist before Q3 2027.
3. The CFO bench is one person with documented competitor interest. Patricia Nwosu's commitment through the exit gives stability now. Lena Haverkamp is the only successor, and two PE-backed competitors approached her in 2026.
4. No emergency protocol is documented. This package provides one for approval today.

2. CEO succession

Board discussion questions:

1. Is the board comfortable that one internal candidate, plus an external benchmark search, is the right way to meet the sponsor's two-candidate requirement?
2. What exposure does the board need to Strand in H1 2027 to judge her readiness?
3. Should the CEO change happen before the sponsor exit, or be coordinated with it?
4. What non-executive role is planned for Thorne, and what is his role in selecting his successor?
5. What may candidates be told, and when?

3. C-suite overview

4. Emergency succession

Also to be designated: who determines incapacity, the activation thresholds, and the interim authority limits. A tabletop exercise is recommended for Q1 2027.

5. Development investment

Total budget: $350,000. Placeholder allocation by priority:

• Strand $100K
• Haverkamp $55K
• Oyelaran $35K
• Benedetti $30K
• Bench identification (Commercial Lines, CIO, CHRO) $60K
• Tabletop $20K
• Reserve $50K

These are placeholders to be replaced by vendor quotes. The external CEO search fee is outside this budget and needs separate authorization.

6. Recommended board actions (PROPOSED — for decision)

Adopt the emergency succession protocols and designate primary and secondary emergency successors for the CEO, CFO and President Commercial Lines (resolution below).
2. Authorize the C&N Committee to run a confidential external CEO benchmark search, with a separate budget.
3.

Endorse the CEO candidate development path for Rebecca Strand and the aspiration conversation with Marcus Oyelaran.
4. Direct the CHRO to identify Commercial Lines, CIO and CHRO benches by Q2 2027.
5. Ask the C&N Committee and the CEO to consider retention for Lena Haverkamp (the mechanism is their decision).
6. Approve the development budget allocation (subject to quotes).
7. Set the next succession review: mid-year, before the 30 June slate.

Appendix — Emergency Succession Confirmation Resolution (DRAFT — for counsel review)

RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WEXFORD RIDGE INSURANCE BROKERS [entity name and form to be confirmed by counsel]

WHEREAS, the Board has reviewed the Emergency Succession Protocol dated [DATE] for the roles of Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and President, Commercial Lines; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes it is in the best interests of the Company to designate emergency successors and confirm the interim authority framework;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board adopts the Emergency Succession Protocol and designates:

• Chief Executive Officer — Primary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]; Secondary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]
• Chief Financial Officer — Primary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]; Secondary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]
• President, Commercial Lines — Primary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]; Secondary: [TO BE DESIGNATED]

RESOLVED FURTHER, that a determination of incapacity under the Protocol shall be made by [TO BE DESIGNATED];

RESOLVED FURTHER, that an interim officer appointed under the Protocol shall act within the authority framework in the Protocol and the Company's delegation-of-authority matrix, with interim limits of [TO BE DESIGNATED]; and

RESOLVED FURTHER, that the Compensation & Nominating Committee shall review the Protocol and designations at least annually.

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Open Questions

End of document — CONFIDENTIAL