H2 2025 Equilar CEO Tracker

March 6, 2026

Joyce Chen

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Key Findings:

1. The 64 departing CEOs earned an average of $155.9M in lifetime pay during tenure

2. Women accounted for 12.1% of CEO appointments in 2025, down from 14% in 2024

3. Departing CEOs had an average tenure of 7.7 years and a median tenure of 6.2 years

In 2025, the Equilar CEO Tracker recorded 64 CEO departures at Equilar 500 companies, with successors named for 58 of those roles. The departing executives earned an average lifetime pay of $155.9 million, with a median of $84.8 million. Safra A. Catz (Oracle Corporation) topped the list at $2.3 billion with 11 years of service, while Timothy Charles Wentworth (Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.) had the lowest total at $1.7 million after finishing his role in just under two years.

CEOs served an average tenure of 7.7 years in 2025, with a median tenure of 6.2 years. The longest-serving CEO was Rodney C. Sacks (Monster Beverage Corporation), whose tenure spanned nearly 35 years and earned $760.9 million in lifetime pay. At the other end of the spectrum, J. Ashley Buchanan (Kohl's Corporation) had the shortest tenure of just under four months and realized $3.9 million during his term as CEO.

	Number of Departing CEOs
< 1year	1
1-5 years	20
5-10 years	27
10-15 years	13/td>
15-20 years	1
> 20 years	2

The 58 CEO successors in 2025 come from a variety of prior roles, most commonly chief operating officer (29.3%) and board member (19%). Other predecessor roles included chief strategy officers, chief transformation officers and divisional leadership positions.

Chief Financial Officer	3.4
Chief Operating Officer	29.3
President	10.3
Divisional Head	12.1
Board Member	19.0
Chief Executive Officer	12.1
Other	13.8

Across the study period, the average age gap between outgoing and incoming CEOs was a little over six years. In 2025, the gap slightly widened to an average of around seven years, with outgoing CEOs averaging 62 years of age compared with 55 years for incoming CEOs.

Age Difference Category	2022	2023	2024	2025
Incoming CEO > 5 years older	4	7	4	8
Within ±5 years	19	17	22	13
Incoming CEO > 5 years younger	37	24	31	36

Furthermore, male-to-male CEO transitions in 2025 were the lowest in the study period at 74.1%, compared with 83.3% in 2022. Male-to-female transitions remained limited at 12.1% in 2025, down from 14% in 2024. In contrast, female-to-male transitions rose sharply from 5.3% in 2024 to 13.8% in 2025, representing a 162.2% increase.

Departures

Successors

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