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CEOs of publicly traded US companies are leaving their positions in record numbers despite historic pay bonuses, as the stock market boom and fears of upheaval in 2025 have led executives to exit.
In the year through November, 327 CEOs of U.S. public companies announced their departures, surpassing the record of 312 departures in 2019, according to consulting firm Challenger Gray. There were several tumultuous CEO departures at blue-chip companies as leaders at Boeing (Dave Calhoun), Intel (Pat Gelsinger) and Nike (John Donahoe) resigned this year amid plunging stock prices.
The departures have contributed to a drop in tenure. In the third quarter, eight CEOs left after serving less than three years, the highest number of short-term appointments since 2019, according to consulting firm Russell Reynolds.
As President-elect Donald Trump promises tariffs and threats to free trade, CEOs who oversee global supply chains are stepping down — or considering doing so — rather than face the looming headache, people who advise them have said. to executive directors.
“Some [business] “Industries will find CEOs saying, ‘I’m going to get out before I have to deal with all this,'” said one executive adviser, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
Increasingly, CEOs of public companies are considering taking jobs at private companies, said Rich Fields, head of Russell Reynolds’ board effectiveness practice.
“There are places where you can make more money than being the CEO of a public company, and private equity growth 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] “If a company turns out the lights, a CEO can make more money at the top end than if they were at a public company and limited by what their peers and their shareholders are doing,” 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.
“The pinnacle used to be being CEO of a public company,” said Jason Baumgarten, head of Spencer Stuart’s CEO practice. Now, “the scrutiny that comes with it has been a challenge.”
While it is not always clear when a CEO leaves by choice or by force, “boards feel more pressure than ever to take action sooner” when performance suffers, he said.
The median salary for S&P 500 CEOs rose $1 million this year to a record $15.6 million, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. Because most CEOs are paid in company stock, rather than cash, the stock market boom has also fueled this pattern, the people said.
CEOs aren’t the only executives on the run. Chief financial officers at large U.S. public companies lasted just over 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 departure.
From 2018 to 2023, 152 companies went through three CFOs each, including Dollar General, Expedia and Under Armour, Datarails found.
“The average tenure of a Fortune 500 company [company] The CFO continues to decline,” said James Stark, head of the CFO practice at Egon Zehnder, a recruiting firm.
“They are approached regularly for new opportunities,” he said, adding that “the tyranny of quarterly earnings” contributes to burnout. “Moving into private space can take them away from that.”