CEO turnover declines in Asia amid global leadership shake-up

While global CEO turnover reached record highs in 2024, Asia bucked the trend, experiencing an 8% year-over-year decrease, according to Russell Reynolds Associates’ 2024 Global CEO Turnover Report. The region saw 42 CEOs departures, down from 46 in 2023, contrasting sharply with the global surge from 186 to 202 departures.

This stability in Asia comes amidst global geopolitical headwinds, political changes, and economic challenges. The report suggested that Asian boards largely maintained confidence in their CEOs, despite increased pressure globally from activist investors leading to a record number of CEOs (43) departing after less than three years.

Euan Kenworthy, Managing Director and Singapore Country Manager, Russell Reynolds Associates, attributed this stability to several factors, including long-term succession planning, cultural emphasis on stability, and robust growth in specific Asian sectors. However, Kenworthy cautioned against complacency, emphasising the need for boards to remain vigilant in ensuring appropriate leadership amidst the evolving business landscape.

The report also highlighted a significant shift towards first-time CEOs, representing 85% of incoming CEOs globally and an ever higher 95% in Asia. This trend reflects improved succession planning and the increasing demands of the CEO role, leading to stronger leadership pipelines within organisations.

2024 also saw a record number of planned successions globally (22%), with internal hires comprising 73% of incoming CEOs – an all-time high, and even reaching 84% within the tech industry.

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While the report indicated progress towards gender parity in CEO roles, it projected 72.5 years to achieve global parity at the current rate of change, a slight improvement from last year’s estimate of 81 years. Asia, particularly the Hang Seng Index and Straits Times Index (STI), show slightly faster progress, but parity remains decades away. The increased CEO churn and focus on succession planning present opportunities for women leaders, but the report underscores the need for accelerated change.

The Russell Reynolds Associates report analysed incoming and outgoing CEOs from 13 global indices, including four major Asian indices: the Hang Seng Index, Nikkei 225, NSE NIFTY 50, and STI, tracking various metrics such as tenure, industry, internal/external hires, gender, and experience level.