Rising Tide Lifting CEO’s Boats

Despite the recent high profile CEO departures at Yahoo! and Dell, turnover in corner offices is actually slowing from 2006’s frenetic pace.

Through the first half of 2007, 27 CEOs at Standard & Poor’s 500 companies quit, retired or were fired, says executive search firm Spencer Stuart. That’s on pace for an annual rate of 54, or about 10 percent, compared with 72 (14 percent) CEOs replaced in 2006.

Among the Fortune 100 representing the largest companies, the departure rate so far in 2007 also is 10 percent, but it is an even more drastic improvement from the 18 percent who left last year and 14 percent in 2005, says executive search firm CTPartners. CEO Smack

A stock market swoon could empower the lynch mobs looking for executives to string up, but for now the pace of turnover certainly looks to be slowing.

Brian Sullivan at CTPartners muses that we might only see two additional Fortune 100 chiefs replaced by the end of the year. Given the dearth of women running these titans (one woman CEO in Fortune 50---Angela Braly at Wellpoint), lets hope John Mackey’s replacement is cute.

CEO Job Security Improving Despite Seeminly High Level of 2007 CEO Movement
CEO Smack
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