Where does your legacy truly live?
Every CEO is measured by growth, profitability, or innovation, and while those achievements matter, here is the uncomfortable truth … they rarely define your legacy. Your true legacy comes to life in the boardroom.
Why? Because long after you step down, it is the board that carries forward your vision. The way you molded that board, the culture of dialogue you encouraged, and the leaders you prepared will determine resilience far more than any quarterly result. And when your time as CEO ends, stepping into the boardroom -whether in your own company or in others- is the natural next level of leadership, where your influence continues to shape the future of the organizations. It is where your experience, vision, and judgment lose any operational traces that may still exist and start driving governance and business continuity. For many, this is not the end of leadership, it is its evolution.
I have seen CEOs who delivered extraordinary growth, only to walk away without preparing themselves -or their boards- for what came next. In those cases, much of the value they created quickly faded. I have also seen leaders who understood that their real next step was the boardroom. They invested just as much energy in shaping strong, independent, and diverse boards, and when they stepped down, the transition was seamless, not only for the company, but for their own evolution as leaders. The difference was not the market, but the readiness of both the board and the CEO to move to the next level.
This is why the conversation about “what comes after being CEO” is so important. The next chapter is not about holding on to the same role, or the same company. It is about taking your leadership to a different arena, the boardroom.
In boards, CEOs-turned-directors stop being operators and become shapers. They bring the wisdom of execution, but also the distance to think even more strategically, and whether it is in their own company or in others, the impact they leave in the boardroom is what truly endures.
As a global headhunter, I have seen this across continents and industries. A strong board legacy never happens by chance. It comes from deliberate choices the CEO makes when preparing for their next level, the boardroom, and here are three essentials stand out:
▪️Diversity of thought: As a CEO, you learn the limits of running with one perspective. In the boardroom, your responsibility is to bring in voices that broaden horizons and challenge assumptions.
▪️Succession readiness: Moving to a board role means ensuring that leadership transitions are anticipated, not improvised. It is how you guarantee continuity beyond your time as CEO.
▪️Culture of governance: The shift from execution to oversight requires a culture of constructive challenge and accountability. Embedding this mindset is how your leadership continues to shape the organization even in your absence.
This topic will be one of the key discussions at our INAC LATAM Regional Meeting, to be held October 15th–17th, 2025, in São Paulo. We will explore how CEOs can evolve from growth drivers to future shapers. And of course, there is only one place where that shift truly happens: the Boardroom. Not as an end point, but as the next stage of leadership.
So, if you are asking yourself, What’s next after the CEO role? Your answer should be your future, and your legacy, live in the boardroom.
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Rui Borges, President INAC Global Executive Search and Managing Partner Ad Capita (INAC Portugal)
Rui is the founder and Managing Partner of Ad Capita Executive Search (𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗖 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗴𝗮𝗹), a preeminent retained Executive Search firm in Portugal since 2001. A recognized seasoned Executive Recruiter for the past 25 years, Rui has been identifiying and placing senior-level executives across sectors and geographies and has always devoted himself to emerging leaders and the buildout of executive talent pipelines. Rui is also Co-founder of our network, 𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗖 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹, one of the leading Executive Search networks in the world. Having served this organization for over 30 years and held a variety of roles during that time, most recently as its President, Rui has always focused his energy and intercultural intelligence on building and leading a global team to drive growth, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity to provide first-rate talent advisory services across the globe.
