Dive Brief:
- Following a period of slow leadership turnover in corporate C-suites and boardrooms, succession planning is one of the top governance priorities for companies this year, according to a recent report by The Conference Board.
- More than 11% of S&P 500 CEOs are in the 65-69 age bracket, up from 7% in 2017, and the share of CEOs aged 70 or older has also crept up, according to the report. Meanwhile, boardroom turnover peaked at 9.6% in 2019 and 2021, but in 2025 only 8.6% of directors were newly elected.
- Succession planning now is expected to have an influence down the line, as 61% of CEOs and directors said they expect their CEO succession planning practices to have more influence on valuation five years from now than they do today, the report said.
Dive Insight:
CEOs are older on average than in previous years as company boards prioritized continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Conference Board. The report, released last month, was based on CEO and director interviews, proprietary survey data, longitudinal board and leadership metrics and real-time market and activism trends.
More recently, slow leadership turnover has also been a bolster against unpredictable times, with escalating geopolitical and economic uncertainty cited as top risks by directors and CEOs for the third year in a row, according to the report. But in such conditions, CEO succession is being viewed and used as a proactive governance and performance lever, the report said.
“Succession planning is becoming less about naming a next CEO and more about building enough leadership range to navigate very different scenarios,” The Conference Board Principle Researcher Andrew Jones told ESG Dive in emailed comments.
Given volatile conditions, Jones said that “boards should be asking whether their leadership bench includes executives suited to different conditions: sustained cost pressure, strategic repositioning, operational disruption, or sharper external scrutiny. Used this way, succession planning becomes a resilience tool. It gives boards real options before they are forced into a decision by events.”
Such events include shareholder activism targeting CEOs, which has sharply accelerated in recent years, the report found. Between 2018 and 2025, activists launched 127 campaigns explicitly seeking to oust or replace CEOs, with about 38% of those resulting in leadership change. However, 2018 and 2019 saw only five and four campaigns, respectively, while a record 39 such campaigns were launched in the first ten months of 2025 alone.
Succession planning, such as beginning succession dialogue immediately after a CEO is appointed and maintaining regular, structured discussions, can be used to “signal accountability, adaptability, and strategic intent to investors,” the report said. The Conference Board said that refreshment is “equally critical” in the boardroom, as “entrenched” directors give activists an “easy target.”
Technology was the most common skill for directors who were newly elected last year, with 46% of new directors possessing such experience. That is up dramatically from the 17% of newly elected directors with that skill in 2021, based on information reported by 80% of the S&P 500.
In spite of the increased technology expertise, companies are still unsure about managing risks posed by artificial intelligence. AI has quickly become embedded into operations and decision-making, but most public company boards “have not yet determined how to integrate it into their formal governance structures,” the report found. But there are steps boards can take in the meantime, Jones said.
“The practical response is usually not to create a new AI committee, but to clarify where AI oversight sits across the board and management: which committee monitors which risks, what gets escalated to the full board, and what management is expected to report regularly,” Jones said. “More broadly, AI governance becomes more effective when it stops being treated as a standalone technology issue and starts being governed as an enterprise operating issue.”
