Intel’s Gelsinger Isn’t Alone: 2024 Has Been a Record Year for CEO Changes

Key Takeaways

• Intel, Starbucks and Nike are just some of the companies that changed their leadership this year.
• More than 40% were changed because they failed to turn their struggling companies around, according to new research.
• The reasons for CEO departures this year span underperformance to a desire for a career shift to misconduct.

Does it feel like a storied company’s chief executive officer is leaving their job every day? You’re not far off.

Intel (INTC), Nike (NKE) and Starbucks (SBUX) are just some of the companies whose leaders have departed this year for reasons from underperformance to misconduct to—as with the CEO of soup and snacks giant Campbell’s (CPB)—a career pivot. (In his case, to the National Football League.)

Exits from the top spot have reached new highs. So far in 2024, more than 1,800 CEOs have announced departures, the highest year-to-date total on record since Challenger, Gray & Christmas began tracking such changes in 2002, the outplacement firm said last month. 

That’s a 19% jump from more than 1,500 exits in the same period last year, which was itself a year-to-date record.

Boards Lose Patience With Underperformance

The rise in CEO departures comes as boards are increasingly losing patience with bosses that fail to right the ship at struggling companies, according to The Conference Board.

More than 40% of the S&P 500 companies that changed their CEOs this year performed poorly, The Conference Board found in an early November report done in conjunction with recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, ESG data analytics firm ESGAUGE, and compensation advisory firm Semler Brossy.

To be exact, 42% of those companies had a total shareholder return that fell below the 25th percentile—up from 30% in 2017. The S&P 500 has also had a strong year, likely casting a brighter light on lagging companies’ underperformance.

“It’s a clear signal to CEOs: Deliver value or face heightened scrutiny,” Lyndon Taylor, partner at Heidrick & Struggles, said in a statement.

From Intel’s Gelsinger to Kohl’s Kingsbury, a Long List of CEOs Let Go

The list of CEOs that were ousted after failing to restore their companies to their former glory is long.

They include Intel’s Pat Gelsinger, as the chipmaker failed to catch the artificial intelligence (AI) wave, and Boeing’s (BA) Dave Calhoun, who left the embattled plane maker burning through cash.

Leaders of retailers struggling with consumers watching their wallets and intense competition from online rivals have also been replaced, including Kohl’s (KSS) Tom Kingsbury, Five Below’s (FIVE) Joel Anderson and Dollar Tree’s (DLTR) Rick Dreiling, the latter who said he was standing down due to health issues.

Sometimes, a company’s declining sales come from a loss of cool: Starbucks’ (SBUX) Laxman Narasimhan, who was ousted after just over a year at the helm of the coffee giant, and once-sneaker king Nike’s John Donahoe could probably attest to that. His replacement, Brian Niccol, came from Chipotle (CMG), whose successor came from inside the company.

It can, as Gelsinger noted, be a “bittersweet” experience, especially for people like the former Intel chief, who had spent most of his working life at the chipmaker.

Conduct Issues Affect Some CEOs

Several CEOs this year lost their jobs for personal relationships or other issues that ran afoul of company policies.

Alan Shaw, CEO at Norfolk Southern (NSC), in September was fired after the freight railroad said an investigation had found that the executive “violated company policies by engaging in a consensual relationship” with the company’s legal chief.

LPL Financial Holdings’s (LPLA) Dan Arnold was fired for unspecified comments to employees that violated the broker’s “commitment to a respectful workplace.”

According to tracking from Challenger, in 2024 through October, seven CEOs left due to allegations of professional and sexual misconduct, which Challenger, Gray & Christmas said could include mismanaging funds or personal conduct.