CEO turnover hits new records as scrutiny skyrockets

CEO turnover has again reached new records as the landscape for corporate governance and leadership becomes even tougher amid heightened scrutiny and global uncertainty. 

The conveyor belt of departures and new appointments has sped up again, as of late 2025. That’s according to new data from the 2025 Russell Reynolds Global CEO Turnover Index. Experts and analysts have noticed this trend building for several years now, and in those several years, we continue to see 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. 

For C-suite veterans, it’s yet another indication that CEO positions are more volatile than ever. For boards, it’s a further wake-up call about the impact of stakeholder expectations and the importance of safeguarding the company’s future with tactics like succession planning. 

Let’s dive in further:

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

• 234 CEOs exited their roles in 2025. This was a record, an increase of 16% on 2024 and of 21% on the eight-year average up till now. The increase was primarily driven by higher CEO turnovers in continental Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Other indices like the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 saw minimal differences in 2024. 
• The average CEO tenure declined to 7.1 years in 2025. This is 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 have increased 79% year-over-year up till Q4 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 that with the knowledge that 32% of the departures in 2025 were planned, and part of board-led strategic decisions. This is up 22% on 2024. 
• The proportion of female CEOs has dropped to around 9% globally, away from a peak in 2022. Incoming female CEO levels have dropped from 15% in 2024 to 8% in 2025.

The data leads to a few crucial discussion points as far as corporate governance goes. It’s no surprise to most directors that “CEO-churn” has reached new highs, but the underlying causes can often be overlooked when it’s extremely worthwhile to examine them in detail, and assess them in the context of your own organisation and its strategy. 

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

Why is this happening? It 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% in 2025.

These external trends heap pressure on directors, who in turn tend to transfer it to CEOs, further fuelling the cycle of “impress from the start or hit the road” mentality. 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. 

That 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. For example, company culture – found to be at the heart of corporate scandals from the UK Post Office to Boeing – often takes years to rectify.

Just under a third of all CEO departures noted in the report were planned. That might not seem like a lot in certain contexts, but it did increase 22%, 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. It stifles 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 it, building networks externally and investing in governance and leadership training internally, so that when the time comes for a leader to go, no matter how great they were, continuity prevails.  

It’s a welcoming thing for the stats to show a heightened focus in this area, and that not as many CEO departures are as frantic as the numbers might suggest on first viewing.

The declining overall number of female CEOs, both in terms of overall numbers and new appointments, presents a stark finding when compared to peaks of just a few short years ago. 

In short, 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 reasoning behind it is altered selection processes or the 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. 

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 a shorter time there, and is more likely to have to contend with early departures and sustained pressure from the board, who pass it on from outside stakeholders. 

That said, there is a growing planned nature to this turnover increase, 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 one has done the job they were hired for. 

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