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Key Findings:
50 announced CEO departures in 2021 versus 70 in 2020.
4.3% of appointed CEOs in 2021 were women versus 15.8% in all of 2020.
Only 17% of appointed CEOs in 2021 were external hires versus 27% in all of 2020.
The Equilar 500 announced 50 CEO departures in 2021. This compares to a total of 70 announced CEO departures in all of 2020. Among those 50, 38 CEOs departed by the end of the year, with the remainder expected to leave sometime in 2022.
The most common reasons for departure in 2021 were resignation and retirement, which each accounted for 44% of all departures.The second most common reason for departure was death at 8% of departures. Figure 1 reports the share of various reasons for departure among outgoing CEOs in 2021.
Figure 1: Reason for CEO Departure (Equilar 500)
The average tenure of outgoing CEOs in 2021 was 9.3 years with a median of 7.6 years. Sheldon G. Adelson of Las Vegas Sands Corp. had the longest tenure at 32.8 years. Samuel Dean Banks, Jr. of Tyson Foods, Inc. had the shortest tenure at 0.7 years. Figure 2 displays the tenure distribution of departing CEOs in 2021.
Figure 2: Length of Tenure for Departing CEOs (Equilar 500)
The average CEO lifetime pay for all 50 departing CEOs is $113.5 million with a median of $81.4 million. Stephen F. Angel of Linde plc, with a tenure of 15 years, earned the highest total CEO lifetime pay at $399 million. George E. Sherman of GameStop Corp., with a tenure of 2.2 years, had the lowest CEO pay at $4 million.
In 2021, two female CEOs announced their departures: Margaret M. Keane of Synchrony Financial and Mary Dillon of Ulta Beauty, Inc.
Two women were appointed CEO in 2021: Joyce Mullen (Insight Enterprises, Inc.) and Ellen G. Cooper (Lincoln National Corporation). In addition, Rosalind G. Brewer was appointed CEO at Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. following the announcement of Stefano Pessina’s transition to Executive Chairman in 2020. Overall, 4.3% of announced CEO appointments in 2021 were women, down from 15.8% and 11.3% in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
In total, external appointments decreased from 32.4% in 2019 to 27% in 2020. For all announced appointments in 2021, this trend has continued, with only 17% of newly appointed CEOs coming from external sources.
Departures
| Company Name | Ticker | Name | Effective Date | Gender | CEO Tenure1 | CEO Lifetime Pay2 |
1Calculated as the earlier of the effective date or December 31, 2021.
2Compensation data collected since 2006.
3Dennis R. Glass will resign following the Company’s 2022 Annual Meeting.
4Michael F. Neidorff will resign in 2022, a specific effective date has not yet been disclosed.
Successors
| Company Name | Ticker | Successor | Successor Gender | Internal | Successor Previous Role |
Senior Research Analyst at Equilar, co-authored this post.
Senior Research Analyst at Equilar, co-authored this post.
Please contact Amit Batish, Director, Content & Communications, at abatish@equilar.com for more information on Equilar research and data analysis.
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