CFO Moves, 2025 to 2026

What the report finds

Of 2,270 US-listed companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, 634 (27.9%) changed their finance chief between January 2025 and October 30, 2026. Among companies that named a new chief executive, 23.5% lost their finance chief within a year, against 10.8% of the rest, after a median of 165 days. Only 14 of 183 interim finance chiefs were later given the job, and 52.5% of outside hires received a sign-on bonus, against 4.7% of internal promotions.

The headline finding is free to read: After a new CEO, the CFO is more than twice as likely to be gone within a year. The report goes further, with the evidence for each finding, the companies behind it and what it means for boards, finance chiefs and the people who recruit them or sell to them.

What is in the download

• The report (PDF). Six findings with their charts and tables: the new chief executive effect, how finance chiefs leave, where the chair turns over fastest, the interim trap, where new finance chiefs come from and what they cost, and the chair as a launchpad. Then what it means, and how the report was built.
• The data book (PDF). All 1,408 changes, grouped by sector, each with the sentence from the filing it rests on and a link to the filing.
• The data (CSV and Excel). One row per change: company, sector, revenue band, date, person, departure or appointment, interim or permanent, the reason or source as filed, the next role where stated, and what the appointment notice disclosed.

What the filings disclosed about new finance chiefs

Fields are filled only where the company stated them. Of 597 permanent appointments, the notice gave a previous employer for 95%, an age for 84%, a base salary for 76%, an equity award value for 52%, education for 50% and a sign-on bonus for 29%.

Where the data comes from

Every row comes from a Form 8-K that the company filed with the SEC (Item 5.02, the notice a company must file when an officer leaves or is appointed). Professional information only, as each company filed it; no contact details. Stratrix is not a consumer reporting agency, and the report and data may not be used to decide anyone's eligibility for employment, credit, insurance or housing (terms, section 9).