When Warren Buffett formally announced his retirement, the moment landed with symbolic weight. One of the most iconic CEOs in history stepping aside raised a timely question: What does leadership look like in a new era of finance?
A recent Korn Ferry article, “The Iconic CEOs – Can They Be Replaced?”, explored that very question. It examined whether the age of singular, larger-than-life executives is fading, and what kinds of skills and profiles are rising to take their place. It didn’t offer a definitive answer, but the implications were clear, how organizations identify and support leadership is changing fast.
To understand what’s really happening on the front lines of talent and recruitment, I caught up with Alan Guarino, Vice Chairman at Korn Ferry and one of the article’s contributors. Guarino co-founded the firm’s global fintech practice and has advised banks, boards, and CEOs for nearly two decades. Watch the full recording and summary below.
From Legacy Infrastructure to Full-Stack Talent
“Just look at how non-financial companies have evolved,” Guarino says. “John Deere isn’t a tractor company anymore, it’s an IoT company. Lego is working in robotics and AR. These are firms that have redefined themselves by hiring for the future.”
Banks and insurers, by contrast, are often still structured around siloed legacy systems. Fintechs have long hired full-stack engineers, professionals who can work across the front-end, back-end, and DevOps. In contrast, many traditional financial institutions are only now beginning to reassess the types of talent they truly need.
That gap isn’t theoretical. It has real consequences for growth, innovation, and customer experience. According to Guarino, hiring is no longer about filling a seat. It’s about redefining what that seat is.
Four Phases of Fintech and What They Changed
Guarino divides the fintech evolution into four distinct phases. Phase one: the electronification of equities in the 1990s, which automated stock trading and reduced the need for floor traders. “Back then, banks were hiring for more traditional roles while fintechs were looking for technologists,” he said. “That gap widened as fintech matured.”
Subsequent phases; digital banking, embedded finance and tokenization, only accelerated that divergence. And as these technologies moved from novelty to necessity, the hiring brief changed from “who understands the product?” to “who can build the future?”
Today, Guarino sees a convergence beginning. Large institutions are increasingly looking to hire from tech companies, particularly for leadership roles that touch technology, sales, and customer success.
Sales, Not Just Systems: Where Tech Talent Lands
While much of the conversation about importing talent from tech into finance focuses on engineering, Guarino sees another major growth area: sales.
“Banks are realizing they can learn from how tech companies sell,” he said. “The intensity, the process and the discipline, especially around long-cycle institutional sales, is something financial institutions are starting to adopt.”
That includes hiring tech-native executives to drive go-to-market efforts in custody, asset servicing, and treasury management. It’s not a natural shift. But the logic is sound, if you’re selling complex, high-value services with long sales cycles, why not look to people who’ve mastered that in the enterprise software world?
GenAI and the C-Suite: New Roles Emerge
One of the most immediate and visible impacts of generative AI has been the creation of entirely new roles, especially at the executive level. “We’re already placing Chief AI Officers,” Guarino told me. “Initially, their job is defensive, figuring out how not to fall behind. But soon it becomes offensive: How do we use AI to win?”
That role will need to work closely with Chief Data Officers, whose remit is also evolving. “The next wave of CXOs will need to be deeply technical and tied to the product,” he said. “Because now, data is the product.”
These developments are pushing organizations to look outside their traditional talent pools. And in doing so, they’re confronting a familiar challenge: how to ensure the people they bring in don’t bounce out.
Organ Rejection and Cultural Mismatches
“You can’t just hire someone from a high-growth tech firm and expect them to thrive in a 150-year-old bank,” Guarino warned. “There’s a risk of what we call organ rejection.”
Even if the skill set is perfect, the cultural fit might not be. That’s not a knock on either side, it’s a reality that requires thoughtful onboarding, mentorship, and cultural work. “Institutions have to evolve too,” he added. “They can’t expect the candidate to do all the adapting.”
Tools like psychometric testing, learning agility assessments, and structured integration plans can help reduce the risk. But more broadly, companies need to understand that hiring for transformation also means committing to transformation internally.
Leadership in a Tech-First World
I asked Guarino how the balance between leadership and technical depth is shifting and he explained ‘Twenty years ago, CIOs were often coders. That changed as companies grew, and leadership became more about managing large, complex organizations’.
Now, it’s shifting back. “With AI and automation, the next wave of technology leaders will be technocrats again,” he said. “It’s back to the future. The skills that got you into leadership in the past might not be the ones that keep you there.”
So, Who Thrives in This New Landscape?
Guarino is clear: it’s not just about technical expertise or brand-name résumés. The most successful leaders and candidates, especially those transitioning into financial services, will need two distinct sets of strengths.
First, what he calls the Greatness Code: passion, resilience, persistence, stamina, and courage. “These are muscles,” he said. “You need to build them early, mid, and peak career. They carry you through uncertainty.”
Second, social capital. “You can have all the skills, but you won’t go far without the right network,” Guarino explained. “Mentors, peers, challengers, they multiply your impact. Especially in a world where machines are doing more, your human network becomes your advantage.”
Redefining Iconic
Warren Buffett’s departure is a milestone, but also a mirror. It invites us to reflect on what kind of leadership is needed next, and whether organizations are equipped to cultivate it.
Guarino doesn’t believe there’s a single formula. “What we’re seeing is a shift from legacy to future-ready,” he said. “The best leaders today may not be as visible or iconic in the traditional sense. But they’re no less effective.”
They’re coders and connectors. Strategists and system builders. And perhaps most importantly, they’re humble enough to know what they don’t know, and build teams that can close the gap.
The age of the lone genius may be ending, but the era of empowered, adaptable leadership is just beginning.
For more like this on Forbes, check out The 3 Innovation Challenges Keeping Bank CEOs Awake At Night, or Why Banks Are Embracing Embedded Finance To Stay Competitive.
Read the full article here
