Why Only 16% of Boards Are Ready for a CFO Exit
Shawn Cole, President and Co-Founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search, was published in CEOWORLD magazine, making the case that executive succession is a material enterprise risk most boards fail to measure or manage.
In his article “Your Board Can Score Every Risk But the One Most Likely to Derail You,” Shawn argues that while boards have built sophisticated oversight for compliance, cyber, financial health, and operational stability, very few maintain an equally disciplined framework for the sudden loss of a CEO or CFO. In today’s volatile executive labor market, that gap has become a glaring liability.
Key insights from the article:
The Environment Has Shifted: In 2025, CEO turnover among top-performing S&P 500 companies nearly doubled year over year, from 7% to 12%. Much of that reflected deliberate board action, not performance failure. Meanwhile, CFO appointments hit their highest level in seven years, with 62% of outgoing CFOs choosing to retire and searches that once took four to five months now running seven to nine.
One Departure Rarely Stays One Departure: When a new CEO steps in, the CFO is typically the first leader to come under review. A single unplanned transition at the top can trigger a sequence that compounds disruption to strategic continuity, investor confidence, and organizational momentum over 12 to 18 months or more.
Most Boards Are Carrying Hidden Exposure: Only about 16% of CFOs report that their organization maintains a proactive succession plan for their role. The signals boards typically watch (earnings declines, share-price shifts, activist interest) are lagging indicators. By the time they appear, the underlying risk has been building for far longer.
From Recognition to Measurement: Shawn introduces the CEO/CFO Transition Risk Index, a framework developed by Cowen Partners Executive Search that scores transition risk across seven dimensions, including career and tenure cycle, capability fit to strategy, stakeholder pressure, internal pipeline depth, role sustainability, the working relationship between CEO, CFO, and board, and each executive’s attractiveness to the external market.
Shawn’s conclusion reframes succession as a core governance discipline: when measured with the same seriousness as risks that already have dashboards, executive succession reveals how much of a board’s strategic confidence depends on just two or three people staying in their seats.
Read the full article in CEOWORLD magazine.
About the CEOWORLD
The CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine for CEOs, CFOs, high-level executive professionals, business leaders, and high-net-worth individuals.
With more than 12.4+ million page views, CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine written strictly for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, senior management executives, business leaders, and high-net-worth individuals worldwide.
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About Shawn Cole
Executive Leadership expert Shawn Cole is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of leadership in creating and growing successful ventures.
As President and Co-Founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search, he has a proven track record in executive search, placing top talent across Fortune 1000 companies and innovative startups.
Shawn’s deep business acumen and forward-thinking approach make him a key partner for organizations seeking to build high-impact leadership teams, positioning him as a valued contributor to Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and other prominent publications.
An active participant in the business community and startup space, Shawn Co-Chairs The Cowen Partners Venture Fund, which provides seed funding and early-stage investments, focusing on market disruptors in niche markets, community businesses, and minority entrepreneurs.
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At the core of our CEO recruitment services is a refined, highly effective process designed to pinpoint, evaluate, and deliver best-fit candidates, based on proven methodology tailored to meet the demands of today’s startups, growing companies, and industry-leading firms.
We don’t just fill roles—our CEO recruiters build leadership teams that fuel cutting-edge growth and revenue-driving innovation. Our strategic, research-driven approach is why Cowen Partners Executive Search is trusted by industry leaders coast to coast, from New York to Los Angeles, Chicago to Dallas, and everywhere in between (including in Hawaii and Alaska).
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