Equilar CEO Tracker: Q1 2023 Update

June 28, 2023

Owen Gilles & Yifan Tu

Key Findings:

1. 18 announced CEO departures in Q1 2023 versus 62 in all of 2022

2. Two appointed CEOs in 2023 so far are women versus eleven in all of 2022

3. 31.3% of appointed CEOs in 2023 so far are external hires versus 26.2% in all of 2022

Equilar 500 companies have announced 18 CEO departures through the first quarter of 2023. This compares to a total of 62 announced CEO departures in all of 2022. Six of the 18 CEOs departed by the end of the first quarter with 11 others expected to leave later this year.

The average CEO lifetime pay for all 18 departing CEOs is $240 million, with a median of $56.7 million. Reed Hastings (Netflix, Inc.), whose tenure surpassed 24 years, earned the highest total CEO lifetime pay at $2.3 billion. Michael A. Witynski (Dollar Tree, Inc.), with a tenure of two-and-a-half years, had the lowest CEO pay at $11.8 million.

During the first quarter of 2023, two female CEOs announced their departures: Anna Manning (Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated) and Heyward R. Donigan (Rite Aid Corporation). Two women were appointed CEO in the first quarter of 2023, Elizabeth Burr (Rite Aid Corporation), on an interim basis, and Kimberly Allen Dang (Kinder Morgan, Inc). The prevalence of women appointed as CEOs in the Equilar 500 increased from 6.4% in 2021 to 18.3% in 2022.

Overall, external appointments increased from 17% in 2021 to 26.2% in 2022. For all announced appointments through Q1 2023, 31.3% of CEOs appointed have been external hires.

Departures

Successors

Contact

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.