Boards are making bigger bets on less proven leaders at exactly the moment when the job is getting harder. AI disruption, activist pressure, economic volatility and rising expectations for rapid transformation have compressed the window for a new CEO to make an impact.
Why it matters: Spencer Stuart's 2025 CEO transition data highlights not just governance and turnover, but about what happens after the appointment. Selecting the CEO is still one of the board's most important decisions. But increasingly, selection is only the beginning, and support is the real differentiator.
The numbers are striking. In 2025, 168 S&P 1500 companies named a new CEO—the highest total since 2010.
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Average CEO tenure fell to 8.5 years, and nearly 40% of departing CEOs left within their first five years.
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Technology, media and telecommunications nearly doubled their CEO transitions year over year, while healthcare companies continued to look outside for leadership at a high rate, with 70% of appointments coming from external hires.
First-timers gained prevalence. Most notable, however, is who boards are choosing. In a sharp reversal from recent years, 84% of incoming CEOs were first-time CEOs.
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Of those first-timers, most had no prior enterprise CEO experience at all, and two-thirds had no board service experience.
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At the same time, incoming CEOs were younger, and the use of executive chairs as transition support dropped to 25% from 42% just two years earlier.
The COO-to-CEO path rose. COOs and presidents accounted for 48% of new CEO appointments, up from 40% the prior year.
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That reflects boards' preference for leaders with visible cross-functional and enterprise-wide exposure.
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It also sends a clear signal to CHROs: succession planning must be built around intentional development. Roles that create enterprise leaders, board exposure and real operating breadth need to be identified and managed early.
The bottom line: CEO turnover is rising, tenure is shortening and boards are acting faster when performance falters. In that environment, the strongest organizations will not be the ones that simply pick the right successor. They will be the ones that prepare leaders earlier, support them better and treat CEO succession as an ongoing system.
