Lessons from a long-tenured CFO

The average tenure of CFOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies in 2025 was 4.7 years, according to a September report from Crist Kolder Associates. In 2024, the Russell Reynolds CFO Turnover Index clocked the average CFO tenure at 5.8 years, down from 6.2 years in 2023.

Even as tenure drops, there are still CFOs who punch in every day, year after year, for the same company. Thomas Olinger, former CFO of Prologis, was one of them. He held the role at the real estate logistics company for 15 years, starting in 2007, until he “changed lanes” in 2022.

We spoke with Olinger to learn how trust can build longevity, about the shifts in the industry he navigated, and his advice for other CFOs.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

What are the advantages of being the CFO at one company for over a decade?

One of the key advantages of being in the seat for that long is the trust you’re able to build, both internally and externally. And trust is key to any relationship. If you have trust and you’re transparent and you have clarity, that gives you the ability to drive your teams, the ability to influence decisions, and drive decision-making inside the company. Just having that trust and those relationships with your boss, with the board, allows you bandwidth to get things done, to take initiatives, to take measured risk, to create long-term value.

How do you build that trust?

It takes time. It’s the simple things. If you don’t know an answer, say, “I don’t know, I’ll run it down.” If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Be reliable. Be trustworthy. It’s a simple thing, but they’re not simple things. And that’s how you build trust. That’s how you build credibility. And once you have that, then when things get tough, where decisions aren’t always so clear, you’re given the benefit of the doubt, which is really important.

What major shifts did you see during your time there?

One would clearly be on the technology side. When I started, that was the period of moving everything into the cloud. So I was fortunate having been at Oracle, a database company, software, and having experience on the tech side to help lead the company through that period…Real estate companies are not going to be technologically savvy, but I think we were on the front end of the technology curve.

Coming out of the financial crisis, we were on good financial footing, and that enabled us to expand pretty rapidly when our competitive set could not. That was a lesson learned; [it] was making sure you always have access to capital. It’s pretty simple. You want to have money when no one else does. That’s the best time to have money—where you can execute things and grow the business in those times. Those are the opportunities when you can create the most long-term value.

Are there any disadvantages to being in the same role at the same company for a long time?

You have to continue to push yourself and reinvent yourself. Make sure you’re challenging yourself—and you have to look out for blind spots. If you’ve been doing the same thing the same way for five quarters or five years, you’ve got to look for opportunities to improve it.

I was just fortunate that I was not in a stagnant business. I was at a growing, dynamic, changing business. And you can just thrive in that environment because you’re forced to adapt. You’re forced to change because the business is changing around you. The key is to change faster than the business is changing, so you stay ahead of the current event.

What advice do you have for other CFOs?

Really good CFOs and really good leaders simplify, they don’t complicate. You look at a situation and you can break it down into digestible components and communicate it to those around you in a way that’s clear. Credibility is always tied to clarity. Simplification, not complication, is key.

What have you been doing since you left Prologis?

I don’t call it retired. I’ve kind of switched to doing public board work, educational board work, some philanthropic stuff, and some consulting. My mom passed away pretty early in life, and that left a strong impression on me, as far as there were some things that she wanted to do and didn’t get to finish. She was a schoolteacher and did child advocacy. I always promised myself that when I still had some tread on the tire, that I would go pick that mantle up and do those things…I didn’t have much room for anything other than trying to be a good husband, good father, and a good CFO. So I didn’t have time to do these other things. I had a list of things I wanted to do.

Retirement’s such a weird term. What I tell people and I tell myself, I’m still in the left lane. I’m not changing gears. I’m just changing lanes. I don’t want to go any slower.