Every Major CEO Stepping Down: 2020-2025
CEOs are stepping down at record-high rates.
According to a report from Russell Reynolds Associates, a record 202 CEOs of publicly traded companies exited their roles in 2024. This tracks with research by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.: “So far this year, [as of Dec 10, 2024] a record number of CEOs have left their roles.
Through our own primary research at Buildremote, we uncovered that 46 of the Fortune 100 have had a CEO step down since 2020.
In this report, you’ll find every notable CEO stepping down since 2020. We looked at all Fortune 100 companies plus every other CEO exit at companies with 1,000+ employees.
189 Major CEOs Have Stepped Down Since 2020
Here are a few notable CEOs who stepped down in 2024. The full list can be accessed here.
Company | CEO | Date | |
Panera Breads | Dave Calhoun | 1/7/25 | |
Boeing | José Alberto Dueñas | 12/31/24 | |
Subway | John Chidsey | 12/31/24 | "Subway announced Tuesday that its CEO, John Chidsey, will retire at the end of 2024. Executive Carrie Walsh will replace him as interim CEO." |
Intel | Pat Gelsinger | 12/2/24 | "Gelsinger, who joined Intel in 1979, was "forced out" after the board lost confidence in his plan to revive the struggling chipmaker." |
CVS Health Corp | Karen Lynch | 10/18/24 | |
Nike | John Donahoe | 10/13/24 | |
Starbucks | Michael Conway | 9/16/24 | |
Chipotle | Brian Niccol | 8/31/24 | |
Nestlé | Mark Schneider | 8/31/24 | |
Amazon Web Services | Adam Selipsky | 6/3/24 | |
Discover Financial | Michael Rhodes | 4/1/24 | |
American Tower | Tom Bartlett | 2/1/24 | |
Morgan Stanley | James Gorman | 1/17/24 | |
JetBlue | Robin Hayes | 01/08/2024 | |
Costco | Craig Jelinek | 1/1/24 | |
What does it mean if a CEO steps down?
Just so we’re all on the same page, here is how we define a CEO stepping down – the leader of a company gives up his or her position for any number of reasons like retirement, resignation, contract ending, switching to a new role, etc.
Additional workplace trend tracking
At Buildremote, we like to identify and then track workplace trends exhaustively. We commit to being the reliable source for anything happening in the way work gets done. Here are a few other reports you may find interesting:
- We reported a staggering amount of well-known companies going remote
- Then the companies going hybrid rolled in
- Then the companies switching to a four-day work week
- We analyzed in-depth the true plans for the Fortune 100’s return to office
- We reported on every major company reducing office space
Things are changing quickly in the workplace. Stay on top of it all by subscribing to Buildremote’s bite-sized emails. We only email you when we have something interesting, not every day.
thank you for following this. The last list I saw they have not updated in a long time!