Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Chief executives of publicly traded US companies are leaving in record numbers despite historic pay bonuses as the booming stock market and fear of turmoil in 2025 has prompted executives to exit.
In the year to November, 327 chief executives at US public companies announced they were leaving, exceeding the record 312 exits in 2019, according to Challenger Gray, a consultancy. A number of tumultuous CEO exits occurred at blue-chip companies as leaders at Boeing (Dave Calhoun), Intel (Pat Gelsinger) and Nike (John Donahoe) stepped down this year amid sinking share prices.
The exits have contributed to a falling tenure for the role. In the third quarter, eight CEOs left after lasting less than three years in the position, the highest number of short-term appointments since 2019, according to consultancy Russell Reynolds.
With president elect-Donald Trump promising tariffs and threats to free trade, CEOs overseeing global supply chains are retiring — or are considering it — rather than face the looming headache, people who advise CEOs have said.
“Some [business] sectors will find CEOs saying ‘I am going to step out before I have to deal with all this,’” said one executive adviser, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
Increasingly, public company CEOs are considering taking jobs at private companies, said Rich Fields, head of the board effectiveness practice at Russell Reynolds.
“There are places where you can make more money than being the CEO of a public company, and the growth of private capital is a big part of that,” he said. Private companies are not subject to the same disclosure rules, while they generally pay with equity more liberally, he said.
“Should a [private] company blow the lights out, a CEO can make more money on the top end than if you are in a public company and constrained by what your peers are doing and shareholders,” Fields said.
Additionally, large private equity groups such as Carlyle and KKR often employ former executives in advisory roles with significant pay packages, the people said.
“It used to be the pinnacle was to be a public company CEO,” said Jason Baumgarten, head of the CEO practice at Spencer Stuart. Now, “the scrutiny that has come with it has been a challenge”.
While it is not always clear when a CEO is leaving by choice or force, “boards are feeling more pressure than ever to take action sooner” when performance is suffering, he said.
Median pay for S&P 500 CEOs increased $1mn this year to hit a record high of $15.6mn, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. Because most chief executives are paid in company shares, rather than cash, the booming stock market has also fuelled the pattern, the people said.
Chief executives are not the only executives taking flight. Chief financial officers at large US public companies lasted a little more than three years in their jobs, down from 3.5 years two years ago, according to a December report from Datarails, a software company — promotion to CEO was rarely the cause of the departure.
From 2018 to 2023, 152 companies each cycled through three CFOs, including Dollar General, Expedia and Under Armour, Datarails found.
“The average tenure of a Fortune 500 [company] CFO continues to go down,” said James Stark, head of the CFO practice at Egon Zehnder, a recruitment firm.
“They are getting approached regularly for new opportunities,” he said, adding that “the tyranny of quarterly earnings” contributes to burnout. “Moving into the private space can kind of get them away from that.”
