CFO turnover increases but so do promotions to CEO

CFO turnover reached a seven-year high in 2025, and finance chiefs are increasingly going from supporting performance to lead actor: CFO to CEO promotions reached their highest level in a decade, according to data from Crist Kolder Associates.

While good news for those elevated, the increase in turnover contributed to a volatile year for the CFO seat.

Data from Crist Kolder’s 2025 Volatility Report and Russell Reynolds’ latest CFO turnover index show 2025 was a record year for CFO turnover.

According to Russell Reynolds, globally, 2025 saw 316 incoming CFOs, a 10% increase from 2024 and 12% above the seven-year average of 281.

“This continued upward trajectory is a clear signal that elevated CFO churn is now a persistent feature of today’s governance landscape,” stated the Russell Reynolds index report.

In large-cap public companies in particular, “CFOs are often operating under sharper expectations—including the ability to communicate performance and outlook clearly while maintaining investor and board confidence through uncertainty.”

Russell Reynolds said some of the turnover stemmed from record-high CEO turnover, which can trigger a reshuffling of the C-suite or backfills as CFOs are promoted to the top job.

Indeed, according to Crist Kolder, last year 10.3% of the CEO hires at a portfolio of 664 Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies came directly from the CFO position. That was a jump from 7.1% in 2024.

Jack McCullough, the founder and president of the CFO Leadership Council, put this into context, writing on LinkedIn that CFOs are “no longer seen as ‘safe hands in a crisis,’” but as “leaders capable of driving the next chapter of growth.”

But CFO job turnover at the 600-plus companies analyzed by Crist Kolder (120 changes ) outpaced the number of changes at the CEO and COO positions, 78 and 61, respectively.

Experience wanted. Despite all those CFO roles to fill, external CFO hires dropped to 35% in 2025, down from 47.1% in 2024 and 42% in 2023, according to the Crist Kolder report. Indeed, Russell Reynolds found that companies valued veteran CFOs, with 43% of appointments given to experienced finance chiefs.

So what did the typical CFO at these large public companies look like in 2025?

They most likely hold an MBA, as do 51.9% of CFOs tracked by Crist Kolder (34.2% hold a CPA). They more likely majored in accounting, like 49% of sitting CFOs, than finance (21%), and there’s a good chance they spent time at one of the Big Five public accounting firms.

According to Russell Reynolds, they might also be close to retirement. Its research showed 60% of outgoing CFOs in 2025 were deciding to retire, up five percentage points from 2024 and the number one reason for CFO turnover in 2025.

While female CFOs and ethnically and racially diverse CFOs have continued to trend upward since 2015, they still represent only a small fraction of those holding the job. In 2025, 14.7% of CFOs were ethnically and racially diverse and 16.5% were female, said Crist Kolder. That 16.5% is down from 17.6% in 2024, a dip consistent with a macro labor market trend of declining female participation in the labor force.

The consumer sector showed the sharpest decline with 30 female CFOs, dropping to 17 in just two years.