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CEO turnover is up, and boards are favoring experienced insiders who can hit the ground running

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29.04.2026

CEO turnover is up, and boards are favoring experienced insiders who can hit the ground running

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady digs into the data behind recent chief executive churn.

The big leadership story: GM’s hefty tariff refund is only part of the story.

The markets: Mixed globally as Wall Street awaits Magnificent 7 earnings

Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. You’re not imagining it: CEO turnover is up, and 41% of the 22 incoming CEOs in the S&P 500 this quarter had prior experience running public companies, up from 25% in Q1 last year. And the trend of hiring experienced insiders, which we recently noted in this column, is validated in Russell Reynolds’ latest Global CEO Turnover Index. The CEOs who left were also in those roles longer—11.9 years, on average, vs. 8.3 years last year—and it’s taking longer to fill those roles. Similar patterns are playing out globally. For more insight, I spoke with Russell Reynolds’ CEO Constantine Alexandrakis about the type of leader that is in demand right now:

Leaders who can hit the ground running. “One quarter does not tell a story, but there is more urgency in the air, more speed, more change, more transformation. And an experienced pair of hands at a moment like this could be more attractive,” he told me. Boards want leaders who don’t need a steep learning curve or lengthy onboarding, making insiders and experienced CEOs attractive, especially if they........

© Fortune