News built for finance pros
CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.
Hunting for a new CFO role? Time to get outside.
Companies are hiring more outside CFO candidates than they have in the last decade, according to Crist Kolder’s latest Volatility Report on executive turnover.
Among the 671 companies in the Fortune 500 and S&P 500, 44% of those hiring a new CFO in 2024 ultimately tapped someone from outside their organization, according to the report. This is above the 39% historical average going back to 2014, and tops the previous high mark of 43.4% back in 2017.
More than one in 10 (11.2%) of companies have undergone CFO turnover so far this year, Crist Kolder found.
The changing nature of the CFO role also means more finance chiefs are moving into the office of the CEO, according to Clem Johnson, president of Crist Kolder. This fact was a headline finding of Crist Kolder’s previous report. CFO-to-CEO promotions actually decreased in the first half of 2024, with 7.1% of sitting CEOs coming from the CFO chair (vs. 8.4% in 2023), “but [are] trending upward overall,” according to the report.
“The broad mandates of modern CFOs have given rise to historically high rates of CEOs who were once CFOs,” Johnson said in a news release. “This trend cranks the flywheel faster, and, sure enough, average CFO tenure has decreased to just 4.7 years. The only constant is more change, so executives who demonstrate an ability to lead through ambiguity will continue to be in high demand.”
CFO turnover in 2024 has been “evenly distributed across industries,” according to the report. The services industry accounted for the biggest fraction of H1 CFO turnover, at 18.7%, with the consumer industry not far behind at 16%.