One in Four Companies Changes Their Chief Executive
Despite COVID-19, the number of CEOs appointed by the largest listed companies in Europe, the UK and the US increased by 30% in 2020 compared to 2019. 22 March 2021
Ana Medina of Expansion (Spain) looks at the recent high profile changes at the world’s largest companies’ leadership structures. As highlighted in SquareWell’s latest study, between January 2019 and December 2020, 120 CEO changes took place across major indices in Europe, the UK and the US. This figure means that nearly a quarter of the largest listed companies changed their CEO over the past two years. Of these, 68 occurred in 2020, 30% more than the 52 in 2019. There were only 25 changes in the second half of 2020, 42% fewer, which indicates the possible reluctance of boards to make a change of leadership during the crisis. Some of the high profile changes over the past two years include the CEOs of AT&T, Ford or Danaher, in 2019; and those of UBS, Renault, Continental, Aviva, Tesco and Imperial Brands, in 2020.
The full article can be accessed here (in Spanish).
