The Leadership Index
The Douglas Jackson Leadership Index
Every year, the executive role is being redrawn. Boards are hiring differently. Mandates are shifting. Salaries are moving and the leaders who stay longest and deliver most are not always the ones organisations expect.
The Douglas Jackson Leadership Index exists to track that change, and to give CEOs, boards and leadership teams the intelligence they need to make better decisions.
Published annually, with quarterly sector snapshots, the Index draws on cross-sector data spanning over 1,000 senior leadership moves, salary benchmarking across C-suite and director-level roles, and direct insight from the executives navigating these markets.
This is the only research of its kind combining movement data, remuneration benchmarks and mandate intelligence across regulated, customer-led sectors in the UK.
Money, Movers and Mandates
Three forces are reshaping executive leadership in the UK right now.
Money; what organisations are paying, where salaries are moving, and where the gender pay gap remains stubbornly wide.
Movers; who is moving, where they are going, and what the velocity and pattern of leadership change tells us about sector health.
Mandates; what boards are actually hiring for. Not just the job title, but the capability, the brief, and the unspoken expectation behind every appointment.
Together, these three lenses tell a story that no single data source can tell alone.
The 2026 Annual Report
The executive role is being redrawn.
In 2026, regulated sectors are navigating a convergence of pressures — consumer regulation, AI ambition, financial constraint and cultural change — that is forcing organisations to rethink not just who they hire, but what they need leaders to do.
From our cross-sector analysis of over 1,000 senior leadership moves in the past 12 months, the picture is clear: the organisations that are getting ahead are not simply replacing leaders. They are rebuilding leadership capability.
Key findings from the 2026 Index:
- CEO succession is accelerating across housing associations, with over a dozen new chief executives appointed in Q1 2026 alone — the majority internal promotions, signalling healthier pipelines but raising questions about transformation readiness.
- Customer, neighbourhood and tenant experience leadership continues to rise as the dominant hiring cluster in social housing, driven by consumer regulation and Awaab's Law compliance.
- Housing associations are 12–18 months behind other regulated sectors on AI and data leadership — 92% plan increased investment in AI and automation, yet 74% cite skills shortages as the primary barrier.
- Across financial services and utilities, Director of Data & AI and blended data-planning-performance roles are no longer support functions — they are central to how organisations manage risk and make decisions in real time.
- The average salary for a Chief Customer Officer in the UK reached £175,000 in 2024, up from £163,300 in 2022, with the highest recorded base salary at £365,000 in financial services.
Quarterly Sector Snapshots
Between annual editions, the Index publishes sector-specific leadership snapshots — tracking moves, appointments, regulatory signals and hiring patterns in real time.
Each snapshot is designed to give boards and leadership teams a fast, focused picture of what is happening in their sector right now.
Current snapshots:
Housing Associations - Q1 2026
80 senior leadership moves tracked. CEO succession wave continues. Customer and neighbourhood leadership rises. AI ambition outpaces capability.
Senior Leadership Moves Tracked
Utilities, Water, Energy, Gas - Q1 2026
245 senior appointments tracked. 60% explicit Technical, Technology,
Digital, IT, Data, CIO or CTO. Smart infrastructure, cybersecurity and data‑driven decision‑making.
Leadership Moves and Insights
Banking, FS, Insurance - Q1 2026
165 senior leadership moves tracked. A widening COO remit driven by advancing considerations in cyber, technology, digital, data, intelligence and customer
Executive Leadership Insight
Operational Performance Q1 - 2026
140 moves tracked, with real world insight appointments reflecting organisations shifting towards predictive capability, automation and AI advancements.
Mission Critical Emerging Skills
Douglas Jackson Market View
Each edition of the Index includes a forward-looking commentary from Michelle Ansell, Managing Partner at Douglas Jackson. This is not a summary of the data. It is a read of where the market is heading and what boards should be thinking about now.
"Selecting the right leader goes beyond a CV with 'customer', 'data', or 'AI' in the title — especially when facing into the new guard of roles and considering both in-sector and cross-sector skills and experience. The organisations getting this right are the ones having the conversation early, before the vacancy exists." - Michelle Ansell, Managing Partner, Douglas Jackson
Read 2026 Market View
Who This Is For
The Douglas Jackson Leadership Index is designed for:
CEOs and boards making senior leadership appointments and wanting to benchmark their structure and remuneration against the wider market.
HR and people directors building succession pipelines and understanding the external talent landscape before a vacancy arises.
Executive leaders navigating career moves and wanting to understand where the market is heading, what mandates are evolving, and what they are worth.
Investors, advisers and sector bodies tracking leadership health and capability trends across regulated industries.
About Douglas Jackson
Douglas Jackson is an executive search and leadership advisory firm with over 20 years of experience placing senior leaders across regulated, grwoth and customer-led organisations.
We work exclusively on retained, exclusive mandates for Chief Operating Officers, Chief Customer Officers, Chief Finance Officers, Chief Growth Officers, Chief Revenue Officers, Chief Marketing Officers and Directors across operations transformation, customer experience, data, insight, analytics and planning.
Our sectors include financial services, banking, insurance, housing associations, utilities, travel, SaaS, retail and professional services.
We place leaders who stay longer and deliver more.
Talk to us about your next search
(CTA button — links to contact page)
Get The Index
Annual Report Download the Douglas Jackson Leadership Index 2026 — full cross-sector data, salary benchmarking, movers analysis and Michelle's forward look.
[Download Now — free] (gated with email capture)
Quarterly Snapshots Receive each quarterly sector snapshot direct to your inbox as it publishes.
[Subscribe to the Index] (email sign-up)