CHICAGO, June 3 (UPI) -- Job security is not part of the deal for corporate chief executive officers when they hold the reigns at troubled companies.
A survey released Monday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international outplacement firm, found 80 CEOs left their executive suites in May, nearly 50 percent more departures than the 54 who left their jobs a month earlier.
Financial sector firms saw the most CEO turnover with 15 departures followed by technology companies with 13 and 10 at dot-coms.
So far, about 315 CEOs have stepped down, retired, resigned, died or been forced out or fired at U.S. businesses in 2002 -- and the average tenure for a departing top exec of 10.3 years shows some long-time CEOs have been calling it quits.
Tyco International Ltd. Chairman and CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski, who reportedly is under investigation for suspected tax evasion, resigned in a high-profile departure Monday citing personal reasons.
"We are seeing more long-time CEOs leave their posts as well as an increasing number of exiting CEOs from the financial sector, which could be the result of the intensifying probes into corporate accounting practices," Challenger CEO John A. Challenger said.
The average tenure for a departing CEO was 5.7 years in 2001.
"The number of CEO changes may rise as more and more companies are put under the microscope of government investigators," Challenger said. "CEO departures may also increase in the coming months as corporate boards determine whether their companies are realizing the gains of a recovering economy. If it is decided that the company is missing the recovery boat, then they may decide to change captains."
Eighty-four chief executive officers left their jobs in May 2001, and 2,620 have departed since Challenger began tracking CEO tenure in August 1999.
