The doors on the executive suites of corporate America began to revolve a little faster in September, with chief executive departures climbing 20 per cent as companies shuffle the decks ahead of the year end, a new survey suggested Friday.
According to figures compiled by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a total of 58 chief executive departures were announced in September, up from 48 in August.
The increase came after two months of declines, with August marking the low point in the typical summer slowdown.
“We have generally seen a spike in CEO departure activity in the final months of a year and into the first few months of the new year,” Challenger chief executive officer John Challenger said.
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“The slowest time for such changes seems to be in the summer months.”
Of the September departures, 20 CEOs retired, while 29 either resigned or stepped down. In six cases, no reason was given. One CEO died, one was replaced, while one more was promoted, according to Friday's report.
In the third quarter, there were 160 departures, 12.6 per cent fewer than in the second quarter and 7.5 per cent fewer than in the first three months of the year.
For the first nine months of the year, 516 CEO changes were recorded, down 8.2 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
“We are getting into the year-end shuffle when a lot of decision making is done by companies and executives as they look ahead to the new year,” Mr. Challenger said.
“Directors are looking at CEO leadership and deciding whether to keep heading in the same direction.”
The release of the report coincided Friday with an announcement by business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. that it was firing Craig Conway as its CEO, citing a “loss of confidence” in his ability to lead the company. PeopleSoft has been fighting a hostile take over bid by rival Oracle Corp. since June, 2003. That bid is now valued at $7.7-billion (U.S.).