H2 2024 Equilar CEO Tracker: CEO Departures Jumped 20%

March 14, 2025

Joyce Chen, Owen Gilles & Jeremy Ho

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Key Findings:

1. In 2024, there were 60 CEO departures, compared to 50 in 2023

2. 14% of CEOs appointed in 2024 were women, compared to 16.7% in 2023

3. 31.6% of CEOs appointed in 2024 were external hires, compared to 29.2% in 2023

There were 60 departures at Equilar 500 companies in 2024, up 20% from 50 CEO departures in 2023. Among the 60 departures, 57 successors have been appointed.

The average tenure of outgoing CEOs in 2024 was 7.6 years, while the median tenure was 6.7 years. Sean Michael O'Connor of StoneX Group Inc. had the longest tenure at 22.1 years. Michael George of Discover Financial Services had the shortest tenure at just under one month. The figure below displays the tenure distribution of departing CEOs in 2024.

	Number of Departing CEOs
< 1year	3.0
1-5 years	20.0
5-10 years	20.0
10-15 years	11.0
15-20 years	2.0
> 20 years	4.0

The average CEO lifetime pay for all 62 departing CEOs was $114.2 million, with a median of $71.7 million. Richard Adkerson (Freeport-McMoRan Inc.), who had a tenure of 20.5 years, earned the highest total CEO lifetime pay at $544.5 million. Richard Dreiling (Dollar Tree, Inc.), with a tenure of 1.8 years, had the lowest compensation at $4.2 million.

The 57 CEO successors in 2024 come from a range of past roles, with the three most common being operations (30.4%), CEO (17.9%) and finance (12.5%). Other roles held by successors prior to their appointments included marketing, merchandising, underwriting, supply chain and business development. The breakdown of the previous roles held by the departing CEOs is illustrated below.

Chief Financial Officer	12.5
Chief Operating Officer	30.4
President	10.7
Divisional Head	8.9
Board Member	8.9
Chief Executive Officer	17.9
Other	10.7

During 2024, three female CEOs departed from their roles: Virginia C. Drosos (Signet Jewelers Limited, Karen Lynch (CVS Health Corporation) and Julia Sloat (American Electric Power Company, Inc.). Eight women were appointed CEO in 2024, including: Adaire Fox-Martin (Equinix, Inc.), Ariane Gorin (Expedia Group, Inc.), Joanna L. Geraghty (JetBlue Airways Corporation), Kathleen L. Quirk (Freeport-McMoRan Inc.), Lori D. Koch (DuPont de Nemours, Inc.), Martina L. Cheung (S&P Global Inc.), Maryann T. Mannen (Marathon Petroleum Corporation), and Shelley Simpson (J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.). Overall, 14% of CEO appointments in 2024 were women, down from 16.7% in 2023 and up from 13.3% in 2022.

For all appointments in 2024, 31.6% of CEO successors were external hires—this marks an increase from 21.7% in 2022 and 29.2% in 2023.

Departures

Successors

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