A successful CEO who helps their company to flourish can earn a long tenure in return. But can a long tenure also help the CEO and their firm to flourish?
The Fortune 500’s longest-tenured woman CEO thinks so: “[I]f you’re super present in what you’re doing, then you’re not always thinking about the next thing, which is counterintuitive to what most people tell you about careers,” Laura Alber told Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in 2023. “If you give it your all, people notice, and they connect better with you and you get more done. I just try to stay fully immersed in what I do, and that is Williams-Sonoma.”
However, talent and loyalty are not the only factors in a company’s success. Business is often a case of adapt or die: a recent PwC survey found that “45% of CEOs believe their company will not be viable in ten years if it stays on its current path” due to challenges such as climate change and the risks and opportunities around artificial intelligence (AI). And a CEO must balance both local and global business culture and economic trends if they are to go the distance.
Like a football manager, the public perception of a CEO’s longevity is often framed as “how long until they’re ousted?” no matter how loyal they present themselves to be. But where in the world do CEOs last the longest — and, by implication, have the greatest success? BusinessFinancing.co.uk analyzed the resumes of 100,000 global CEOs to see which cities, states and countries have the longest average CEO tenure.
What We Did
We built a list of locations in every country, U.S. state and major business city across the world and sourced a sample of CEOs (totalling 100k) for every location with the help of LinkedIn. Then, we used the “current years in role” metric for each CEO to calculate each location’s average CEO tenure in years.
Key Findings
- Lebanon is the country where CEOs last the longest, with an average tenure of 8.5 years.
- Thessaloniki, Greece, is the global city with the longest average CEO tenure (9.5 years).
- Hereford in England is the UK city with the longest-serving CEOs (8.6 years).
- In the U.S., Mississippi is the state where CEOs last the longest (8.4 years), and Laredo, TX, is the city with the longest-serving CEOs (9.2 years).
The Countries and Global Cities with the Longest-Serving CEOs
Four of the ten countries with the longest-serving CEOs are in Asia, and four are in Europe. Lebanon boasts the longest-serving CEOs, with tenure averaging 8.5 years.
Click here to open this world map in full-size
“Focusing on myself has been very important, allowing me to take a step back and come back stronger,” says Christine Assouad, CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts Lebanon for over 27 years. “As CEOs, we need to accept that we are also human, and we need to make sure we are well first, as we can’t help anyone otherwise. Something we often forget in coping with crisis is that you and your teams’ physical and mental wellbeing is what will, in the end, drive the business through a crisis.”
In the UK, the average CEO lasts 5.3 years — a shorter tenure than the average CEO of 48 other countries and 23 spots behind the average U.S. CEO (5.5 years). However, several UK and U.S. cities are among the top 20 for longevity (below), which is led by Thessaloniki in Greece, where the average CEO tenure is 9.5 years.
There are also three Chinese cities among the global top 20. China’s CEOs average a tenure of 6.8 years, but in Shenzhen that figure rises to 8.0. Market confidence among Chinese CEOs dropped markedly across 2023, with 71% believing demand remained below pre-Covid levels and 40% expecting a decrease in investment. “CEOs’ views are clear on the most pressing risks for their business in China: geopolitical tensions and China’s economic slowdown,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the China Centre for Economics and Business at The Conference Board.
“Although China’s reopening has injected optimism into the global economy, CEOs in Mainland China and Hong Kong will still need to master the balancing act of running today’s race and navigating long-term economic viability with investments that strengthen their capabilities,” says Thomas Leung of PwC China.
The UK Cities with the Longest-Serving CEOs
In the UK, eight of the ten cities with the longest-serving CEOs are in England. The top city by one year and one month is Hereford, where the average tenure is 8.6 years, as measured across 112 local CEOs.
Nic Millington is CEO of Rural Media, “a Hereford-based production company and charity producing award-winning films and digital arts projects,” which he founded 32 years ago. The organization has flourished by balancing corporate video projects with community initiatives in the underserved media landscape of the rural West Midlands. “Media is a high-value industry,” which “provides a tremendous opportunity for regeneration,” explained Millington in 2009.
Stirling, Scotland (7.3 years), and Newport, Wales (6.5 years), are the top UK cities outside of England for CEO longevity. One hero CEO in Stirling is Gary Beale, boss of health tech firm Emblation since 2007, who recently won a Business Leadership Award at Life Sciences Scotland.
“It’s been an incredible journey, I’ve been able to witness the growth of our team from the early days of a startup, to where we stand today – achieving record-breaking growth,” said Beale. “Additionally, relocating our entire team to the new headquarters was a huge undertaking, but the payoff has been incredible. It’s been a significant move, but the positive impact it’s having on our team dynamics and potential for expansion is undeniable and 2024 is another year with great potential for growth for us.”
The States and U.S. Cities with the Longest-Serving CEOs
Among the American states, Mississippi is the clear standout, with the average CEO managing 8.4 years in power. By contrast, the average tenure in second-placed Maryland is 6.9 years, or 18 months fewer than Mississippi. This is amidst a troubling few years for CEOs in America, with the median tenure among S&P 500 companies falling by 20% from 6.0 years in 2013 to 4.8 in 2022.
The state of New York is a relatively treacherous place to be a CEO. The average boss lasts 5.9 years. Of course, there are exceptions. JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon is the longest-serving CEO on Wall Street, serving since December 2005. “He has demonstrated an exceptional ability to identify and develop talent, as evidenced by the routine appointments of JP Morgan’s senior executives to leadership roles among the company’s largest competitors,” says James Shanahan, senior equity research analyst at Edward Jones.
Some might be surprised to learn that New York City doesn’t feature among the top 10 U.S. cities for CEO longevity (below). California cities dominate that table: Chula Vista (8.4 years), Anaheim (7.1) and San Bernardino (6.8) are dotted behind Laredo, Texas, where the average CEO tenure is 9.2 years.
One issue that comes with an exceedingly long tenure is that times don’t just change with seasonal trends but with generational ones.
Retiring as CEO of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce after 29 years and three months, Miguel Conchas noted that it “can’t be the way it was in the past… when I joined the chamber it was coat and tie, every member of the board. It was part of the civic responsibility of businessmen to be part of the Chamber of Commerce… But over the years, things have really changed. Young entrepreneurs, they don’t really see that as a given. Now we have to work in different ways, we have to really provide a return on investment.”
Leave On A High Note
For every young Tom Wambsgans or Kendall Roy out there, the idea of half a lifetime in charge of an exciting company is both a dream and — in the shape of the real-life Logans who won’t quit — an intergenerational frustration. But sometimes it’s up to the CEO to recognise when stepping down is not just best for the company but best for their own health and legacy.
“People always feel like they have one more act,” says David Fubini, former senior director at McKinsey and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. “It’s a bit like when you are a skier traversing a field of moguls, and you keep saying: I’ll turn at the next one, or the next one, or the next one, and before you know it, you’re in the woods.
“In reality, very, very few people are wildly successful for an extended length of time. So you want to find an inflection point, where you can leave while you are at the apex, not past it—and most people miss that. Your legacy is enhanced by leaving when people are wanting more.”
Methodology
We first built a seed list of locations that included every country, U.S. state and major business city across the world. Next, we applied the location filter and current role filter (set to “CEO”) on Linkedin’s People search to source a sample of CEOs (totaling 100k) for every country, city and state. Lastly, we gathered the “current years in role” metric for each CEO, allowing us to calculate the median tenure in years for CEOs in each location.
This data analysis was completed in April 2024.
Leave a Reply