The supply-demand dilemma brewing in CFO turnover stats

Matinee movies, random woodworking projects, and sipping ice cold beverages beachside. Dream vacation, or a day in the life of a CFO?

Increasingly, there might not be much of a difference: CFO retirements are markedly on the rise.

Globally, 60% of outgoing CFOs at companies in major stock indices either retired or moved to the board in Q1 2026, significantly above the seven-year Q1 average of 39%, according to the latest CFO Turnover Index from leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds.

We’re at an interesting point for turnover overall: CFO appointments at those publicly held companies dipped for the first time since Q1 2022, falling from a high of 5.2% in Q1 2025 to 4.9% for the same quarter in 2026.

“It’s the first quarterly decline, but it’s very minor, and it’s still pretty significantly elevated against the seven-year trend,” Linda Barham, Russell Reynolds’s financial officers practice Americas leader, told us, adding that “a lot of the impetus and the catalyst behind [activity] actually haven’t changed, and so we’re still sitting at a very significant high, even across the last seven years.”

Things get interesting, however, when you dig a little deeper into the side effects we may increasingly see as a result of the retirement stats: As the supply of experienced CFO candidates shrinks, the demand for experienced CFOs is growing, potentially creating an intriguing supply and demand dilemma in the future.

Life of leisure. So why are so many CFOs picking up woodworking retiring? For starters, strong capital markets don’t hurt.

“As stock prices and valuations have maintained periods of strength, CFOs are opting to retire out and maybe maximize some of the economics,” Barham said—in other words, cash in their company equity holdings and deferred compensation at the top of the market. “There’s been this point in time where that’s an opportunity and an option.”

But then, there’s also the elephant in every boardroom.

CFOs and boards are increasingly asking about how AI will transform the CFO role, with finance chiefs often tasked with finding ways “to bring AI into the organization to find efficiency,” Barham noted. “As we look across some of the more experienced CFO population, some are opting out of taking that transformation journey and saying it’s time to retire.”

Going public. The retirement stats dovetail with another key finding of the latest index: With seasoned CFOs stepping away, the demand for experienced talent is only growing more acute.

42% of CFOs appointed in Q1 2025 had prior public company experience, per Russell Reynolds, “marking a Q1 high” and a rise from the seven-year average of 35%.

External hires climbed to a Q1 high of 47%, according to the index.

“Part of the link [between retirement rate and demand for experience] is when an organization has had a very experienced set of hands in the CFO chair, their desire and preference is to bring another set of experienced hands back in,” Barham explained.

There can also be a need to offset the newness of a CEO appointment, Nick Roberts, Russell Reynolds’s financial officers practice senior managing director, told us.

“Increasingly, as you’re seeing first-time CEOs named into the chair, boards are looking to offset the perceived growth for them with a really experienced CFO to be paired with that profile,” he said.

In the interim. As organizations search for experienced external hires, interim appointments are climbing, too.

“Interim CFOs accounted for 12% of newly appointed hires in Q1 2026, up from 6% in 2025, suggesting more organizations are relying on temporary finance leadership while they manage unplanned departures or extend the search for a permanent successor,” the turnover index noted.

But that doesn’t mean internal pipelines are broken, Barham noted. “Whilst we’re at an all-time low for internal promotions [going by just first-quarter numbers], it’s still the majority, and still over 50%,” she said. “Do your day job well, and focus on your development areas, and there is still an opportunity.”

The biggest question from here on out is whether or not we’re heading into a period of IPO readiness, Roberts and Barham agreed.

“When we go that direction of IPO readiness, our clients and most of the time those organizations are seeking experience in a public company CFO seat,” Barham said.

That dynamic “will also shape the way experienced CFOs look at opportunities,” Roberts said. “There’s oftentimes excitement about being part of an IPO,” and CFOs might view it “as a feather in their hat.”

IPO experience is “going to be another pull on the market to get experienced CFOs into these IPO contender roles,” Barham added. “At a certain point [with] supply and demand, that may create more opportunities for internal successors that are known within the company…to step up.”