Evolving CEO Expectations: Leadership Perspectives from Tallinn
September 2026
Pedersen & Partners hosted a CEO Morning Seminar & Breakfast in Tallinn, bringing together senior leaders to discuss how the role of the CEO has changed in recent years and what boards increasingly expect from today’s leadership.
The event was moderated by Avo Kaasik, Principal, Baltics and Nordics and Country Manager for Estonia at Pedersen & Partners, Inga Ezera, Principal at Pedersen & Partners, Latvia and a Board Member of Pedersen & Partners, Estonia; member of Global Insurance and Leadership Consulting Practice Groups, and featured perspectives from Gary Williams, Equity Partner and CEO at Pedersen & Partners, and Michael Pärt, CEO of APC Endowment, Chairman of the Council of the Arvo Pärt Centre, Music Producer at Michael Pärt Music and Artistic Advisor at Orchestral Tools.
Gary Williams focused on the changing expectations facing CEOs. Boards increasingly need leaders who can operate effectively through uncertainty, use technology and AI to create tangible business value, lead organisational transformation and, at the same time, build the next generation of leadership.
He also highlighted a growing challenge for many organisations: the limited number of internal leaders with sufficiently broad experience, including full P&L responsibility, to step into the CEO role. Where this pipeline is not developed early enough, boards can become increasingly dependent on external CEO appointments.
Michael Pärt brought a different perspective to the discussion. Drawing on his experience with the Arvo Pärt Centre and APC Endowment, he explored the leadership challenge from the standpoint of long-term legacy and continuity.
While many CEOs are primarily focused on leading the organisation of today, his challenge is also to ensure that a founder’s purpose can endure across generations. This requires translating that purpose into strong governance, institutional capability and long-term financial resilience.
The two perspectives came from very different environments, but pointed to the same fundamental leadership question: what remains when the founder or CEO eventually steps away?
For boards and leadership teams, this question is becoming increasingly important. Leadership today is not only about delivering current performance, but also about building the structures, capabilities and successors that allow an organisation to continue developing beyond the individual leader.