CFO turnover ain’t over

Here we are, talking about CFO turnover again. Why do we keep doing this? Because it keeps happening.

CFO turnover reached a seven-year high in the first three quarters of 2025, as 256 new CFOs took over and 215 CFOs left their posts worldwide, according to the latest Russell Reynolds CFO Turnover Index. That appears to continue a trend: In the first half of 2024, CFO turnover at public companies on 12 major stock indexes hit a three-year high “after slower starts to the year in 2022 and 2023,” according to the management consulting firm.

If you’re reading this, we have a feeling you already knew about the CFO turnover situation. What’s worth digging into a little more, though, is why CFOs keep leaving and changing posts, because the reasons are changing, too.

“Even over the last series of years, [we’ve seen] record high levels of turnover,” Linda Barham, financial officers practice Americas leader at Russell Reynolds, told CFO Brew. “Several years ago, coming through the 2021 IPO spike, that just naturally went toward increased turnover and increased opportunities at the CFO level.”

Then, amid the pandemic, Barham says “we saw a natural response of turnovers and the early stage pickup of retirements at the CFO level.” And now, retirement is one of the most dominant turnover drivers, motivating 58% of departures in 2025 so far, per the latest turnover index. “We are at, in 2025, one of the highest levels of retirements that we’ve seen at the CFO level,” Barham noted.

The changing nature of the CFO role played a part in turnover, too. “Increasingly, we’re seeing CFOs take on broader roles within organizations,” Nick Roberts, a partner in Russell Reynolds’s CFO practice, told CFO Brew. “Of the 42% who didn’t retire, about two thirds of [CFOs] took a role internally where their role is expanded to either a president, [or] sometimes CEO or business unit president.”

High CEO turnover likely had some impact there. “In 2024, as you look at the stats, that was one of the highest years of CEO turnover,” Roberts explained. “As you think about the lag of CEOs coming on board, and then looking at their executive team, oftentimes the CFO is turned over.”

Another key driver of turnover (which any real estate agent could also tell you): location, location, location. Turnover was particularly elevated in the US, as the S&P 500 reported a seven-year high “in CFO appointments during the first three quarters of 2025, with 84… appointments…up from 73…in the same period in 2024,” the latest index noted.

“With the S&P at sort of all-time highs, I think there’s a perspective of CFOs, of like, ‘Hey, now is a good time for me to transition,’” Roberts added. “That’s been a component, I think, that has been influencing, maybe, retirement rates over the past couple of years.”

Now, a CFO Brew reporter has to ask…are we going to keep writing about CFO turnover forever? And by forever, we mean in 2026. The answer: You bet.

“One other trend that I think we may be on the precipice of seeing is another push from an IPO standpoint,” Barham said. “Obviously, there’s been a hold on that from a market perspective, but we can feel the undercurrent of that potentially coming,” which could “create a different level of demand on CFOs that can actually take companies through that type of environment as well.”

“As capital markets potentially open up over the next couple of years, I think you’ll suddenly see CFOs who otherwise are happy in a public company environment say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna take a leap and join a pre-IPO opportunity,’” Roberts added. “And so I think you’ll see some turnover there.”

Translation: Expect to hear from us on this very topic again.