Manulife CEO Roy Gori, pictured here at the insurer's headquarters in 2023, has announced his plans to retire next May. Manulife's head of Asia Phil Witherington will take over the CEO role.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
Manulife Financial Corp. MFC-T chief executive officer Roy Gori has surprised the insurance industry with his decision to retire at the company’s annual general meeting in the spring, when the insurer’s head of Asia is set to succeed him.
Phil Witherington, 47, will assume the CEO role and join Manulife’s board upon Mr. Gori’s retirement on May 8, according to a company press release Monday. Mr. Gori has agreed to stay with the company until Aug. 31 to serve as an adviser and support the CEO transition.
“With our strong performance and disciplined execution, we’ve delivered market leading total shareholder return, radically transformed our company, and achieved tremendous momentum that I intend to carry forward,” Mr. Witherington said in the release.
RBC analyst Darko Mihelic said Mr. Gori’s announcement comes as a surprise, as it was not clear the 55-year-old would step down from his current role so soon.
“He has served as CEO for seven years since 2017, compared to the typical tenure for CEOs of financial services companies of 10 plus years and with Roy in his mid-fifties, this would be considered a “young” retirement,” Mr. Mihelic wrote in a research note. “In our view, Mr. Gori’s passion has not waned at all in recent years.”
Opinion: The pay for Manulife’s CEO is head and shoulders above peers
Manulife shares have posted a total return of 154.9 per cent, including dividends, since Mr. Gori’s first day on Oct. 1, 2017, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
That tops the 126.3 per cent for Sun Life Financial Inc. as well as the returns of Canada’s four biggest banks over that time frame. However, much of that growth has occurred over the last year of Mr. Gori’s leadership. Shares were still trading around $26 at the end of November, 2023.
Now, Manulife’s year-to-date total return of 62.8 per cent year-to-date, through Friday, is more than twice Sun Life’s 27.7 per cent. Shares closed at $45.30 on Monday – down 1.63 per cent from Friday’s close.
A Manulife spokesperson said Mr. Gori was unavailable to comment on his retirement. But in a statement and in a LinkedIn post, Mr. Gori reflected on his time leading the company as well as the past decade, where he has worked closely with Mr. Witherington.
“Phil’s deep expertise and experience, principled leadership, and ability to drive change are exactly what’s needed as Manulife writes its next chapter,” he wrote. “I’m extremely proud of our team’s many accomplishments. We’ve delivered superior operating results, de-risked our business, and become a digital customer leader in our industry.”
Mr. Witherington has more than 25 years’ experience in insurance and financial services globally. Prior to joining Manulife Asia in 2014, he held positions with HSBC and AIA Group Ltd., one of the largest insurance companies in Asia.
In 2017, he became a member of Manulife’s executive leadership team when he was appointed chief financial officer – a position he held for five years before returning to Hong Kong as president and CEO of Manulife Asia.
It is no surprise that Manulife’s next leader has a strong record of leading the company’s Asian operations. When Mr. Gori stepped into his role in 2017, Asia made up about 36 per cent of the company’s profits. Today, 44 per cent of core earnings comes from Manulife’s eight Asian markets, as of Sept. 30.
Over the past decade, Canadian insurance companies have been bolstering their exposure to the Asian market. As a result, the region is establishing a track record for grooming the next generation of CEOs at Canada’s largest insurers.
Sun Life’s current CEO, Kevin Strain, led the Asian operations for five years, while Mr. Gori was recruited from Citibank, where he led its Asia-Pacific retail business, to head Manulife’s Asia division in 2015. Two years later, he was appointed CEO.
Now, as Mr. Witherington prepares for another move, this time to be at the helm of the company, Manulife has yet to name his successor in Asia but says it will do so in the coming months.
As for Mr. Gori, he has not yet said whether there is another move in his already nearly 40-year career, which began when he was hired by Citibank at the age of 17.
Ratings agency Morningstar DBRS said in a research note Monday that Mr. Gori has been an “effective leader,” setting and executing on clear strategic targets.
“Most notably, under Mr. Gori’s leadership, the company has significantly lowered exposures to legacy and low-return-on-equity business, which improved its risk profile while strengthening its financial performance.”
Mr. Gori received $95.7-million in compensation from Manulife in the six years from 2018 to 2023, according to the company’s reports to shareholders. The total includes the estimated value of stock awards, which can ultimately be worth more or less.
“As for what comes next for me, I can now pursue some of the many other passions that I have,” Mr. Gori wrote on LinkedIn.
“Of course, I’ll spend more time with my family in Canada and abroad. And I’ll focus on mentoring the next generation of business leaders and innovators, investing in health and longevity, which is a personal passion of mine, and philanthropy.”
With a report from David Milstead