If Leslie Wexner, the 82-year-old billionaire behind Victoria’s Secret, steps aside as the company’s leader, as he has been in talks to do, it won’t only be a big moment for the retailer. It will also end the tenure of the longest-serving CEO in the S&P 500. Replacing him would be Warren Buffett, whose time on the job is just behind, at a half-century.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, their longevity in those roles makes them rarities among corporate leaders. Few executives manage to stay in power for decades, although the tenure of S&P 500 chief executive officers has gradually risen since the financial crisis.
Some corporate boards are increasingly seeing merit in longer CEO tenures, says James Citrin, head of the North American CEO practice for Spencer Stuart, a leadership advisory and executive recruiting firm. “The mindset about CEO tenure is at the beginning of a potential change,” he says.
The average S&P 500 CEO tenure as of 2018 was 10.2 years on the job, up from an average tenure of 7.2 years in 2009. New research from Spencer Stuart suggests that when top executives stay for more than a decade, they often deliver some of their best years of performance, with the best value-creating periods in years 11 to 15 on the job.
In these “golden years” of CEO tenure, as the report describes them, executives benefit from strong institutional knowledge and the experience of guiding a company through multiple crises. Read the full story.
