You can also get to the top as a personnel manager – Diepresse.com

If you like, Robert Francis Prevost was one of the most important HR people in the Vatican before becoming Pope Leo XIV. As a prefect of the dicasterry for the bishops, he had been responsible for all matters that affect bishops, such as appointments and bishops synods since 2023.

In everyday company life – and here the appointment certainly applies to completely different rules – it is rather the exception that personalists make the leap to the head of the organization. There are probably several reasons. Human Resources is seen more as a support function and not assigned to the core business. Unlike sales or controlling, HR positions are seen more as a cost center, than as sales or even profit charms. And unlike managers from the specialist departments, they have less influence on technological or market -oriented decisions.

The management consultancy Heidrick & Struggles calculated in 2020 that around 20 percent of the CEOs were previously Chief Financial Officers (CFO). Followed by Chief Strategy Officers (CSO), Chief Risk Officers (CRO) or Chief Technology Officers (CTO).

Nevertheless: there are exceptions that Chief HR Officers (Chro) became Chief Executive Officers (CEO). Because they understand management and know why – it is about economic success – massive to the employees.

Leena Nair, the CEO of Chanel, about. The British-Indian manager (born in 1969) had been with Hindustan Unilever Vice President HR and was later responsible for leadership, organization, diversity, equality and inclusion in the global headquarters of the Group.
Or Mary Barra, who initially became General Motors HR in 2009 and promoted CEO in 2014 – as one of the first women who led a large automotive company.

There are also examples in Austria. Alexander Kraus rose directly from the position of HR manager to the CEO of G4S Austria last year.

Markus Tomaschitz, in turn, held various management positions before he came to the Styrian technology company AVL List. At AVL List he joined Chief Human Resources Manager in 2015 and became spokesman for the group of companies in 2021.