This Week's Top Five Leadership Stories

Aflac CEO becomes Longest Serving Executive in Fortune 250

Following the departure of Warren Buffet as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Dan Amos, CEO of Aflac, now stands as the longest serving CEO on the Fortune 250.

Dan has been responsible for overseeing shareholder satisfaction and ensuring the return of profit for Aflac over a tenure of 35 years.

“It’s never really something I thought about,” Dan says. “I just blinked an eye and 35 years had passed.”

Since 1990, Dan has been instrumental in turning Aflac into the world’s largest supplemental insurance company.

The US firm currently ranks 222 on Fortune Magazine’s list of the largest companies by revenue.

Dan and his uncle, John Amos, have been the Aflac’s only two CEOs since its inception more than 70 years ago.

Michael Sacks, Professor of Organization and Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, says a company having two chief executives back to back across such a period of time is incredibly rare.

“It’s almost unheard of,” Michael says. “It’s a tremendous outlier.”

AstraZeneca CEO: AI will Change the Pharmaceutical Industry

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot says AI is helping drug companies develop medicines faster and make more informed decisions during the research process.

“The value of AI in our industry is productivity improvement,” Pascal says. “In the way you design a new medicine, a new drug, you can actually do it faster, do it smarter.”

Pascal’s comments come amid a rise in investor concerns over whether large investment into AI is beneficial to the healthcare industry. 

He adds that AstraZeneca is already seeing practical applications across drug discovery and development, from identifying new targets to improving the design of potential medicines.

“You can come up with new targets, but also you can optimise your molecule [and] remove what you think are going to be potential side effects from the molecule, and AI helps you do this,” Pascal says.

Perrigo Announces Leadership Reshuffle After CEO Departure

Perrigo announces plans to reshuffle its C-suite board following the departure of CEO and President Patrick Lockwood-Taylor.

In a company statement, Perrigo states that Patrick has resigned from the firm due to “personal misconduct”. 

The pharmaceutical firm said that “certain personal conduct by Mr Lockwood-Taylor was not consistent with the company's code of conduct and core values”.

“The conduct did not involve the company's business, strategy, operations, financial reporting, or results of operations,” it added.

Patrick’s resignation, which includes his removal from the company board, takes effect immediately.

Perrigo board member Albert Manzone will assume the role of President and CEO on an interim basis until Patrick’s successor has been found.

Iceye Secures US$1.5bn Funding Round

Satellite startup Iceye has raised €1bn (US$1.5bn) in a funding round led by US private equity firm General Atlantic in one of Europe’s biggest defence tech capital raisings.

The funding round saw the firm valued at US$10bn (US$11.5bn) – four times the figure after its capital raise in December.

Rafał Modrzewski, Iceye CEO, says the funding will help the company expand “faster than ever before”, at a time when Europe is trying to enhance its position in the space sector – alongside US and Chinese competitors – and utilise satellite technology to create autonomous defence infrastructure.

“Sovereign intelligence from space is entering a new era and the window to build it is now,” Rafał adds.

The fundraising round comes amid investor enthusiasm for Europe’s defence start-ups. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European governments have been looking to increase military investment, resulting in greater interest from private investment into the sector.

Private Status will Accelerate AI Growth, says Razer CEO

Huge public offerings from companies amid the global race for AI adoption could be a long-lasting trait of the tech industry, according to Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan.

Speaking ahead of a series of incoming public debuts from AI companies like OpenAI and SpaceX, Min-Liang discussed the potential increase in tech IPOs over the next few years at Singapore’s SuperAI convention.

He says: “I think with this host of new companies going out into public capital markets, it’s super exciting, but I think this would be just the beginning.

“We’re going to see a second generation, a third generation, different waves coming through.”

Min-Liang’s comments come a day before SpaceX’s public debut, which is aiming for a record-breaking US$1.77tn valuation.

Additionally, OpenAI recently filed to go public this month, not long after its rival Anthropic, which submitted an IPO filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission a week prior.