'I've done my time': Finance CEOs are eyeing the exits as average tenure balloons

financialpost.com:

A changing of the guard is expected soon on Wall Street.

Executive search firms are anticipating an uptick in resignations as the average tenure of America’s top finance chiefs grows to the longest of any sector, and those who may have delayed leaving to provide stability through the COVID-19 pandemic look to exit.

“People are like, ‘I’m done. I don’t want to go back into the office,’” Ash Athawale, senior group managing director at recruiter Robert Half Inc., said in an interview. “‘I’ve done my time. I’ve taken my organization through something that nobody was prepared for.’”

That see-it-through mentality is analogous to some of their peers during the 2008 financial crisis, Spencer Stuart Inc. consultant Marie Ford said in an interview. Barclays PLC’s John Varley, who steered the British bank through the turmoil, and Citigroup Inc.’s Vikram Pandit, who navigated the lender around a near collapse, were replaced in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

“We will start to see a higher rate of succession in the next couple years,” Ford said.

The average tenure of the 59 finance chief executives in the S&P 500 is approaching 11 years, up from about eight years in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg using the Bloomberg Industry Classification Standard. Finance still holds the top spot even when excluding outliers like Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, who’s been CEO for nearly 54 years.

An increase in CEO turnover could present challenges for companies and investors alike. Finance firms are often more complex and more regulated than their peers, making the pool of qualified candidates smaller and succession therefore harder, while changes at the top can hurt stock prices, at least in the near term.

When Morgan