First-time CFOs comprise 64% of appointments in H1 2026

We’ve never seen the presumably magnificent 2017 film Boss Baby, but we have to imagine the plot involves a baby becoming the CFO of a Fortune 500 company. Let’s not fact-check that...

In any case, there might be a growing number of metaphorical “boss babies” in the C-suite in the year ahead: First-time CFOs made up 64% of global CFO appointments in the first half of the year, a climb from 60% in H1 2025, according to leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates’s latest CFO Turnover Index, released August 12.

The firm pointed to two primary factors driving the increase in first-time CFOs. For starters, the popularity of interim appointments is no joke, and those part-time gigs have provided “executives who have not previously held the top finance role with an opportunity to demonstrate their readiness.”

Then, there are all those finance chiefs on the opposite end of their careers: “The rising proportion of retirement-driven departures may be reducing the available pool of active, experienced CFOs, encouraging organizations to consider a broader range of first-time candidates,” Russell Reynolds added.

In all, retirements and moves to board roles comprised 60% of CFO departures in the first half, which the firm says is “the highest proportion in [its] eight-year series.” The high number of retirements was especially noticeable at S&P 500 companies: 69% of those outgoing CFOs either retired or transitioned to board roles.

Notably, the report said the increase in retirements “does not appear to be associated with unusually short CFO tenures,” adding that “departing CFOs had served for an average of 6.3 years, broadly in line with the eight-year average of 6.1 years.”

“This suggests that a significant cohort of long-serving finance leaders may be reaching a natural transition point at the same time,” the firm said.

Overall, there was a lot of CFO turnover in the first half, not just for the newbies and old hands. More than one in 10 (11%) of companies “across the leading global public indices” appointed a new CFO, another eight-year high and a slight jump from 10% last year. Similar to retirements, turnover activity was especially pronounced at S&P 500 companies: The appointment rate reached 13%, which was above the eight-year average of 10% for H1.