CEO churn on the rise as top-level tenures continue to shorten

Corner offices are no longer safe havens with sustained uncertainty and mounting pressures prompting record CEO exits, writes Dan Byrne

The turnover of chief executives has again reached new record levels as the landscape for corporate governance and leadership becomes tougher amid heightened scrutiny and global uncertainty.

The conveyor belt of new appointments and departures has sped up again in the past year, according to data from the 2025 Russell Reynolds Global CEO Turnover Index.

There have been new records for how many CEOs (or the boards supporting them) are deciding to pull the trigger, initiating new searches, new strategies and, in some cases, new blame games.

Experts and analysts have noticed this trend building for several years. For C-suite veterans, it’s yet another indication that the position of CEO is more volatile than ever.

For boards, it’s a wake-up call about the impact of stakeholder expectations and the importance of safeguarding the company’s future through tactics such as succession planning.

CEO turnover hits new records

Fed by data across major world economies and markets—including the S&P500, FTSE 100, EuroNext 100, HANG SENG, and Nikkei 225—the Russell Reynolds report revealed some stark findings about the new normal for CEO tenures:

• Two hundred and thirty-four CEOs exited their roles in 2025. This was a record—up 16 percent on 2024 and 21 percent ahead of the preceding eight-year average. This rise has been driven mainly by higher CEO turnovers in continental Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Other indices, such as the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500, saw minimal differences in 2024.
• The average CEO tenure declined to 7.1 years in 2025, down from 7.4 years in 2024 and below the highs of 8.3 years in 2021 and 2023.
• Extremely short CEO tenures (i.e. a departure within 30-36 months of taking the job) are becoming “more visible” according to the report. In fact, they increased 79 percent year-over-year up until the fourth quarter of 2025.
• The number of CEOs leaving within their first year rose to 11 and equalled a previous record set in 2018.

If you’re thinking that the above figures paint a chaotic picture, caveat this with the knowledge that 32 percent of the departures in 2025 were planned (up 22 percent on 2024), and part of board-led strategic decisions.

The proportion of female CEOs has dropped to about nine percent globally, away from a peak in 2022. Incoming female CEO levels have dropped from 15 percent in 2024 to eight percent in 2025.

This data leads to a few crucial discussion points regarding corporate governance. It will be no surprise to many directors that “CEO churn” has reached new highs, but the underlying causes can often be overlooked.

Examining these causes in detail, and assessing them in the context of your own organisation and its strategy, can yield valuable results.

1. There’s no more grace period

We’re seeing the rapid decline in the concept of a “grace period” for CEOs—a window for them to settle into their role, find their feet and make mistakes that can eventually feed into longer-term success. Now, it’s all about producing results from day one.

Why this is happening can vary from region to region. Geopolitics is now a hot topic when it comes to leadership decisions.

Another major factor continues to be activist pressure, which (measured by the number of campaigns) increased by 23 percent in 2025.

These external trends heap pressure on directors, who in turn tend to run pass it on to CEOs, further fuelling the pressure for those in the top job to “impress from the start or hit the road”.

It’s a reflection of the modern business landscape, fuelled by short-term shocks. In this environment, businesses are concentrating more on their ability to handle more immediate challenges than on any long-term strategy.

This can have advantages but can also introduce risk if not managed properly. Depending on the situation, some CEOs will need breathing space to institute change.

2. Succession planning is getting more of the respect it deserves

Just under one-third of the CEO departures noted in the report were planned. This might not seem like a lot in certain contexts, but it did increase by 22 percent, and any movement that signals better succession planning is a welcome development.

We know too well that succession planning is a crucial boardroom duty. Without it, boards create an inherent risk that comes with turbulent transition periods with no clear leader.

This can stifle productivity and deliberation, not to mention throwing every short- and long-term corporate goal into question.

In recent years, boards have been paying more attention to this, building external networks and investing in internal governance and leadership training—so that when the time comes for a leader to go, no matter how great they were, continuity prevails.

3. The pathways for female CEOs

The declining number of female CEOs, both overall and in new appointments, presents a stark contrast to the peaks of just a few short years ago.

Such a cycle of peaks and troughs doesn’t spell bode well for one of the most crucial factors in leadership diversity, which can and does have a positive impact on a company’s long-term health.

Whether the reason behind it is an altered selection process or changing talent pool, the fact is that pathways to a CEO position for female candidates are narrowing again at a time when continued growth should be winning out.

4. The CEO position is precarious

The most immediate conclusion we can draw from this data is that the position of CEO is more precarious than ever.

Anyone who lands a chief executive role can expect to spend less time in it. They are also more likely to have to contend with sustained pressure from the board, passed on from external stakeholders.

Increasingly, however, there is a planned element to this CEO churn, which means boards are getting more hands-on about what they need from a CEO, and who they’re going to pick once the current appointee has done the job they were hired to do.

The conveyor belt has sped up. It’s long been the new normal and the numbers don’t suggest this will change any time soon.

Dan Byrne is a journalist with the Corporate Governance Institute