As the year comes to a close, 2005 will be marked as a leading year of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) turnover.[1] With
1,100 CEOs having already left this year, departures have already
exceeded the previous high set in 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst.[2] The
trend is a bit surprising as the economy and corporate profits have
both been on an up swing this year. While it might be easy to attribute
the exodus rate to the impact to the pressures of compliance with
Sarbanes-Oxley, there are other factors that seem to provide a better
rationale for this year’s trend.
It should be noted that the majority of CEO departures this year have been voluntarily. In October, one of the highest departure months with 96 exits, only 5 CEOs left as a result of corporate scandals.[3] Hence, the majority of this year’s increased rate is not … Read the rest