Alight Ends CEO Search by Naming Current Vice Chair of Board

Alight Inc., one of the country’s largest recordkeepers, has announced Dave Guilmette as its new CEO. He will also maintain his current role as vice chair of the board. As part of Alight’s succession planning, Guilmette replaces Stephan Scholl, who stepped down as Alight’s CEO and as a board member but will stay on as an adviser for six months.

Earlier this month, Alight’s board of directors appointed Guilmette, who had just been named to the board as an independent director in May, following an activist investor’s February call for change, as vice chair. The change is also intended to install a leader with more experience in the benefits industry.

According to Alight, the recent $1.2 billion sale of its payroll and professional services segment to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital aligns with its leadership transition, as the company sought a CEO with deeper experience in the benefits industry.

“I am honored to lead Alight at this pivotal time,” Guilmette said in a statement. “Our technology transformation and recent divestiture have laid the groundwork for us to emerge as a much stronger company with a significantly improved financial profile.”

Before joining Alight, Guilmette served as CEO of Global Health Solutions, a multi-billion-dollar division of Aon, where he led growth and profitability efforts. In its announcement, Alight credited Guilmette’s extensive expertise in innovation, large-scale solution development, commercial partnerships and mergers and acquisition.

“Dave is a highly engaged director who already works closely with our executive management team, so he will hit the ground running in the CEO role and support a seamless transition for the team and clients,” said William Foley, chair of Alight’s board, in a statement.

According to Alight, Guilmette worked closely with Scholl recently to plan the transition.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished during my time with Alight,” said Scholl in a statement. “We have transformed Alight into a simpler, more capital efficient company better equipped to serve our clients’ needs. I want to thank our employees for their dedication, and I wish Dave and the leadership team all the best.”

Following his appointment, Guilmette resigned from the board’s audit committee. With Scholl’s exit, the board will now have 10 directors instead of 11. The company also reaffirmed its business outlook for the second half of 2024.

“As we discussed when we released our second quarter financial results, the Board has been focused on succession planning for months,” said Foley. “Today’s announcement is the result of that work, and we are confident in Dave’s ability to jumpstart Alight’s next chapter following the completion of significant milestones including the technology transformation and divestiture of the Payroll & Professional Services business.”

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP had pushed for leadership changes at Alight, nominating four directors to the board in February. However, those nominations were withdrawn as part of a “cooperation agreement” with the company. On May 6, Alight announced the addition of two new independent directors to the board, one of whom was Guilmette. Starboard owned 7.2% of Alight’s outstanding common stock, as of May of this year.

Based on PLANSPONSOR’s 2024 Recordkeeping Survey, Alight ranks as the third-largest defined contribution recordkeeper by both assets and participants, trailing Fidelity and Empower in both categories.