Who are today’s business service leaders and how are they shaping the next evolution of the professional services sector? We share our data and analysis of Totum’s business services leadership placements in 2024/25 in our latest report.

Key research highlights: 

• Our leadership placement figures taken from 2020 to 2024, for roles with Chief and Director titles, show we have placed an average of 43% men to 57% women.
• When it comes to gender parity it is worth noting that we have seen particular progress with finance leadership roles. A historically male dominated function last year saw 38% female leaders placed into these roles.
• Since 2022, we have filled 94% of our leadership recruitment projects, and are prouder still that 92% of leaders are still in the role we placed them into.
• We have seen a particular increase in the recruitment of People, COO, Knowledge and Technology leaders and also roles which have a focus on how legal services are being delivered.
• In 2024/25, 30% of the candidates we placed into leadership roles had backgrounds predominately from outside of the legal sector – a departure from 2015, when more than 90% of the candidates we placed into law came from a legal background. 
• In 2024/25, 62% of our leadership projects were for Director roles. This represents a slight decrease from previous years, as the number of Chief roles has increased over the past year.
• In terms of specific functions, our leadership placements for 2024/5 were split across marketing & BD (22%), finance (22%), general operations (19%) and HR/Responsible Business (14%), but with a notable increase in technology roles to 19%, from 8% in 2023.

Click here to read the full report, including all data and analysis.

To discuss the findings mentioned in this report or Leadership recruitment opportunities, contact either Tim Skipper, or Deborah Gray.