Equilar CEO Tracker: Q4 2022 Update

February 10, 2023

Ryan Cody, Owen Gilles & Yifan Tu

Key Findings:

1. 62 announced CEO departures in 2022 versus 49 in 2021

2. 18% of appointed CEOs in 2022 were women versus 6% in all of 2021

3. 26.2% of appointed CEOs in 2022 were external hires versus 17% in 2021

Equilar 500 companies announced 62 CEO departures through the conclusion of 2022. This compares to a total of 49 announced CEO departures during 2021. Of the 62 CEOs, 53 departed by the end of the fourth quarter with nine others expected to leave in 2023.

The average tenure of outgoing CEOs in 2022 was 7.7 years with a median of 7.3 years. Frederick W. Smith III of FedEx Corporation had the longest tenure at 24.4 years. Ozan Dokmecioglu of Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. had the shortest tenure at 0.3 years. Figure 2 displays the tenure distribution of departing CEOs in 2022.

The average CEO lifetime pay for all 62 departing CEOs is $115.7 million, with a median of $86.9 million. Thomas M. Rutledge (Charter Communications, Inc.), whose tenure surpassed 10 years, earned the highest total CEO lifetime pay at $523.5 million. David E. Filtman (Builders FirstSource, Inc.), with a tenure of less than two years, had the lowest CEO pay at $3.3 million.

During 2022, two female CEOs announced their departures: Sonia Syngal (The Gap, Inc.) and Michelle D. Gass (Kohl’s Corporation). Eleven women were appointed CEO in 2022: Gina R. Boswell (Bath & Body Works, Inc), Sue E. Gove (Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.), Heather H. Lavallee (Voya Financial, Inc.), Jennifer W. Rumsey (Cummins Inc.), Julia A. Sloat (American Electric Power Company, Inc.), Mary N. Dillon (Foot Locker, Inc.), Kathleen E. Johnson (Lumen Technologies, Inc.), Karla R. Lewis (Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.), Stephanie L. Ferris (Fidelity National Information Services, Inc.), Maria Black (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.), and Jennifer A. Parmentier (Parker Hannifin Corp). Overall, 18% of announced CEO appointments in 2022 were women, up from 6.4% in 2021 and 16% in 2020.

In total, external appointments decreased from 27% in 2020 to 17% in 2021. For all appointments announced in 2022, 26.2% of CEO successors were external hires.

Departures

Successors

Contact

Ryan Cody

Research Analyst at Equilar, co-authored this post.

Owen Gilles

Senior Research Analyst at Equilar, co-authored this post.

Yifan Tu

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.