In the first half of the year, five new CEOs joined the DAX. What their CVs have in common – and what others can learn from them who also want to reach the top.
Dusseldorf. It took Milan Nedeljković 33 years to reach the top of BMW. The engineer with a doctorate started as a trainee at BMW in 1993, worked his way up through production - with a station in Great Britain - and took over the executive chair from Oliver Zipse in May 2026.
This means that the new BMW boss is not an isolated case: all but one of the new CEOs in the German leading index in the first half of 2026 came from the company's own ranks.
What else do the five men have in common? What patterns can other managers who also want to be at the top of a large company learn from them? This is shown by a closer look at the personal details.
In general, there have been fewer changes in leadership at the world's largest companies this year than ever before. This is shown by an analysis by the personnel consultancy Russell Reynolds, which is available exclusively to Handelsblatt. The experts evaluated the changes in leadership of the largest listed companies worldwide, from the Dax to the leading US, British and Asian indices.
The fluctuation at the top of the world's largest 1,800 listed companies fell to a record low in the first half of 2026. Only 101 CEO changes were announced - the lowest figure for a first half of the year since the survey began in 2018. At the same time, the number of new CEOs rising from within their own ranks is increasing.
In the DAX, not a single CEO departure was announced for the future in the first half of 2026. This has not happened since the evaluation began. Meanwhile, five new CEOs took office as planned from January to June: Milan Nedeljković (BMW), Kai Beckmann (Merck), Christian Kötz (Continental), Christoph Jurecka (Munich Re) and Luka Mucic (Vonovia). Four main success factors can be derived from their biographies.
1. “Chimney career”: still a successful model
Like the new BMW boss Nedeljković, Merck CEO Kai Beckmann is also a top manager of the “homegrown brand”. The qualified computer scientist has been working at the pharmaceutical company since 1989, becoming Chief Information Officer there in 2007 and moving to the board as human resources manager in 2011. In 2017 he also took over the Electronics division. In May 2026, he succeeded Belén Garijo as CEO.
Christian Kötz also has a long history in his company. He has been working at Continental for three decades. The industrial engineer held several management positions in the global tire business, most recently as division boss. In 2019 he was promoted to the board of directors and in 2026 he moved to the top of the group, which is currently undergoing restructuring.
In contrast to these representatives of the typical “chimney career” – always upwards, but always in the same “shaft” – Christoph Jurecka only moved to Munich Re in 2011, after positions at two other insurance groups. He became CFO in 2019 and has led the reinsurer as CEO since January 2026. Today he can still boast 15 years of experience at Munich Re.
Four out of five new CEOs, a pattern: All of them have decades of service or at least years of industry experience, and at some point they made the jump to the top of the company. According to Russell Reynolds, the proportion of internal new appointments in the DAX is significantly above the average of the past ten years. According to the consultants, only around 40 percent of all new CEOs in the DAX during this period were internal candidates.
And the “chimney career” is widespread worldwide. 88 percent of the newly appointed CEOs in the American leading index S&P 500 came from within the company in 2026 - the highest figure since Russell Reynolds began collecting this data. And almost a quarter of all new CEOs of large companies worldwide have previously been the head of a listed company. Also a record value.
Supervisory boards apparently choose unknown candidates less often - and more often choose managers who already know their own company or the business of a CEO from their own experience. And they stay in office longer than before: in 2026, departing CEOs had previously been in office for an average of nine years. Last year it was only 6.6 years.
HR consultant Jens-Thomas Pietralla, who heads Russell Reynolds International's CEO and supervisory board search business, says: "Investors and supervisory boards are trying to counter the increasing global uncertainty caused by geopolitical dynamics and upheavals through AI with more stability at the top of the company."
Critics of the “chimney career” regularly ask whether companies like BMW or Continental need fresh impulses from outside in view of technological change and Chinese competition. Pietralla disagrees: “No CEO has to be able to do everything, but enable everything.” It is crucial to orchestrate the organization in such a way that the strengths of the individual board members come into play.
Other experts see this more critically. In an interview with Handelsblatt, organizational psychologist Fabiola Gerpott from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, for example, compared “home-grown people” with experienced mountain guides: They know “almost every path” and thus saved the company start-up time. But the same familiarity carries a risk – “less innovation”.
Men between 51 and 60 years old with academic degrees, three of whom have doctorates: The new CEOs in the DAX have similarities. But “applying the same template over and over again is dangerous when you need more different perspectives to make good decisions,” Wiebke Ankersen has been warning for years. She is the German head of the Allbright Foundation, which is committed to more women and diversity among management personnel in the German economy.
And yet: those who come into a company from outside often have a harder time at first than those who are promoted from within. If a CEO lacks industry experience, he will need time to get started - and may start out weakened while investors and the supervisory board look closely.
A warning from succession researcher Ayse Karaevli from WHU, who researches CEO successions, shows how high the stakes are: “A failed CEO change can cost a DAX company billions – through price losses, operational uncertainty and damaged trust.”
Luka Mucic is in exactly this risk zone at Vonovia. The new CEO comes from the technology and telecommunications environment - most recently as CFO at Vodafone, and before that in the same position at SAP. He has no real estate experience.
His start was accordingly bumpy: his plan for more growth and debt reduction caused the share price to collapse by up to ten percent, and the media spoke of a “reality shock” for the new DAX boss. There is also a political risk: Vonovia is an addressee of the Berlin socialization debate through its subsidiary Deutsche Wohnen: The Left, which received 25.7 percent of the vote in the Berlin House of Representatives election, wants to transfer large housing companies into state ownership.
So is Mucic the wrong man for the job? Russell Reynolds expert Pietralla believes such conclusions are dubious. Mucic's appointment may seem surprising at first glance, but it is understandable: In addition to his extensive CFO experience, he also brings knowledge of IT and digitalization, which is becoming increasingly important for the management of large real estate portfolios.
Russell Reynolds' evaluation ends in June 2026. Since then, the one outlier in the Dax has been joined by a second one: on September 1st, Jonathan Pratt took over as CEO of Qiagen, also to an outsider. However, he has CEO experience, although not in a listed company: Pratt most recently led the Filtration Group, a filter company.
Russell Reynolds expert Pietralla says: Judging by the current preferences of the supervisory bodies, there is evidence to suggest that internal appointments and forward-looking succession planning will continue to prevail. However, loyalty alone does not guarantee a top position. The expert also advises candidates to clearly express their ambitions and actively seek support, for example through leadership assessments, coaching or mentoring.
2. Springboard departments: Finance and Production
A pattern emerges at BMW: not only Nedeljković came out of production, but also his three predecessors Oliver Zipse, Harald Krüger and Norbert Reithofer. Anyone who has production under control demonstrates operational leadership in an area that affects the entire group. Ideally, he has mastered cost discipline, keeps an eye on supply chains and is responsible for thousands of employees.
In addition to production, a second station in particular is considered a classic career accelerator: the position of CFO. Christoph Jurecka also became CEO of Munich Re via the CFO position.
This position is an exception among the classic stepping stone jobs, says Pietralla: CFOs rarely have operational management experience, but they do have a view of the entire company - from capital allocation to risk management - that hardly any other position offers. The new Vonovia boss Mucic has both: At SAP from 2014 to 2017 he was both Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer (COO) - a rare dual role of operational and financial experience.
3. Build strategic visibility
If you want to make it into a stepping stone role, you have to become visible. “Anyone who does not actively communicate their performance will easily be overtaken by a colleague who is just as competent but is better at presenting themselves,” wrote industrial psychologist Nese Oktay-Gür in a Handelsblatt article in 2025.
Oktay-Gür advises numerous companies. She refers to the so-called Matthew effect: those who receive early recognition for their performance are more often entrusted with larger tasks. Perceived success leads to further opportunities, while invisible successes don't get you anywhere.
Two of the new DAX bosses in particular show how strategic visibility can accelerate careers. Both made themselves visible to investors in particular: Kai Beckmann, as head of Merck's Electronics division, repeatedly presented at the group's "Capital Market Days". Under his leadership, the division's sales grew from around 2.5 billion euros in 2017 to 3.8 billion euros in 2024.
Milan Nedeljković, in turn, as production director at BMW, presented the introduction of the “New Class” at capital market days - the new electric vehicle architecture, including the factory structure in Debrecen, Hungary, with which the group is its answer to Tesla and Chinese competitors. Both thus delivered a clearly measurable, attributable performance not only within the company, but also towards the financial world.
What is often misunderstood: Visibility does not mean showing yourself as often and everywhere as possible. Oktay-Gür recommends three guiding questions before you take advantage of certain opportunities as a manager, regardless of whether it is a posting abroad or responsibility for change processes.
What is your goal with visibility? Is it a promotion, a powerful network, building a personal brand?
Do the task and project match this goal and your own values?
Does the communication of your own success remain authentic instead of intrusive?
According to Oktay-Gür, anyone who doesn't ask themselves these questions is falling into a trap. He takes on too many additional tasks that do not help him achieve his own goals.
4. Gain transformation experience
Today, CEO potential is primarily held by managers who can transform companies. Companies have to adapt to new developments much more quickly and fundamentally, says Pietralla. Orchestrating this process is becoming a CEO's most important leadership quality. Milan Nedeljković is driving the switch to electromobility at BMW, while Luka Mucic is bringing his knowledge of IT and digitalization to real estate management at Vonovia.
