Record CEO turnover at U.S. public companies has put the largest class of incoming chief executives in years at the helm of large enterprises — and the newcomers are younger and less experienced than ever before.
Nearly one in nine CEOs at the 1,500 largest publicly traded companies was replaced last year, a new analysis shows. This is the highest rate since at least 2010, when the US was emerging from the financial crisis.
The pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Dozens more companies brought on new CEOs in January or early February, including Walmart, Procter & Gamble and Lululemon Athletica. On the same day in early February, Disney, PayPal and HP announced new CEOs, and last week Kroger appointed a former Walmart executive to head grocery.
The result is a grand experiment in leadership as companies grapple with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, the unraveling of long-established business practices, and an unstable economy and geopolitical order.
“We are in a new environment, and the person who is going to repeat the old stories of the past is not necessarily the one who is right,” said James Citrin, head of the global CEO practice at Spencer Stuart, the executive-recruiting firm that prepared the report. “If the CEO doesn’t get up to speed internally with operating performance and with investors, boards become even more impatient than before.”
Many of the problems they face go beyond traditional business challenges. Target CEO Michael Fiedelke took over the helm of Target this month from 11-year veteran Brian Cornell. But he found himself posting a video message to employees a few days ago, addressing federal immigration actions in the company’s hometown, Minneapolis. “This is not the first message I imagined I would send,” he said.
In the last quarter of 2025 alone, companies with a combined market capitalization of $1.3 trillion hired or lost chiefs, including Verizon Communications and Yum Brands, the parent company of fast-food chains KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The combined value of companies adding or losing new leaders by early 2026 is $2.2 trillion, with Walmart accounting for nearly half, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from corporate-disclosure firm MyLogIQ.
Work on some changes was going on for a long time. Warren Buffett handed over Berkshire Hathaway to Greg Abel on January 1 – a succession plan that Buffett made in 2021.
Other changes were more sudden. CarMax ousted Bill Nash in November amid declining sales, ending his nine-year tenure. HP tapped director Bruce Broussard as interim CEO after Enrique Lores stepped down to take the top job at PayPal next month. Biotech firm Codexis suddenly replaced its CEO of three years with its chief technology officer, Alison Moore, and cut its workforce by 24% at the same time.
Adolfo Villagomez, who took over the helm of 1-800-Flowers.com from its founder in May, said crosscurrents have left companies demanding a different approach since the pandemic hit, especially in retail.
“It’s a very different skill profile when you have growth as a tailwind versus when you have a lot of headwinds and you need to reposition the company,” said Villagomez, who previously ran a residential rental company and held executive positions at Home Depot. “That’s why you see so much change.”
There are signs that this is more than just the normal ups and downs of an executive shuffle. Recent high-profile departures have included long-serving executives — including Walmart’s Doug McMillon after more than a decade and Buffett after six decades. But current CEOs are generally leaving the position early, traditionally.
Meanwhile, Spencer Stuart finds that the incoming chief of staff is younger and less experienced than the previous generation of new leaders. The average age of incoming CEOs is 54 years, while the age of CEOs appointed last year was around 56 years.
Of the 168 CEOs who came last year, more than 80% were first-time arrivals with no prior experience running public companies or other major stand-alone enterprises. Two-thirds of them have never served on a corporate board before.
Some, like Raymond James’s Paul Shoukry, are younger than their predecessors when they got the top job. The financial-services firm promoted Shokri, 42, from CFO to CEO last February. He replaced Paul Reilly, who was 55 when he became CEO in 2010.
Executives who have not run a stand-alone company have not necessarily been tested. Josh D’Amaro, the 55-year-old Disney executive who is scheduled to take over from Bob Iger next month, runs the company’s theme-parks and cruises unit, which has annual revenues of $36 billion and 185,000 employees worldwide.
“Given the changes in the world, it makes sense to me to be young,” said Cindy Jamison, a longtime turnaround executive who serves on boards including Darden Restaurants and International Flavors & Fragrances. “Things are changing very dramatically and permanently and you want people who are facing these decisions.”
When companies brought in older and more experienced heads, it often reflected struggle in difficult circumstances. Spencer Stuart said more companies last year chose a board member to run things day-to-day, typically a stopgap move that suggests succession didn’t go as planned. This includes 15% of incoming technology, media and telecom CEOs.
Last year there was a shortage of new female CEOs. Only 9% of new hires were women, down from 15% a year ago. Overall, about 9% of CEOs in the S&P 1500 are women, including 46 women in the S&P 500, Spencer Stuart said.
Write to Theo Francis at theo.fransis@wsj.com