The nook workplace in retail has hardly ever felt so precarious.
Greater than 1,500 chief executives have left their posts to date this 12 months by way of August, up 4% from final 12 months and the best on report over that interval since enterprise and govt teaching agency Challenger, Grey & Christmas started monitoring CEO churn in 2002. Retail corporations are main the cost.
Various high-profile retailers — together with Kohl’s, Ulta and Kroger — stated goodbye to their high brass in 2025. Retail corporations have reported 41 CEO exits year-to-date, a 116% enhance from the 19 throughout the identical interval in 2024. That makes retail the highest business for CEO turnover this 12 months. Monetary companies have seen a 19% enhance in CEO departures year-to-date, whereas CEO exits at leisure and leisure corporations are up 22% from final 12 months. CEO turnover in different industries is within the single digits.
“General CEO exits are up, however retail actually stands out,” stated Andrew Challenger, office and labor skilled for Challenger, Grey & Christmas.
Whereas the “Nice Resignation” amongst rank-and-file employees has largely receded with the pandemic, management specialists say an analogous phenomenon is now unfolding on the high, with retail CEOs below rising strain to ship leads to a risky financial system.
The surge in retail CEO turnover reveals how a lot more durable the job has develop into and the way few leaders are prepared for what it now calls for. Working a retailer right now means doing way over choosing merchandise and forecasting demand. Now, high executives are additionally anticipated to grasp e-commerce alongside brick-and-mortar shops, navigate main geopolitical occasions like commerce wars and pandemics, and steer long-term transformations round cutting-edge applied sciences like synthetic intelligence — all whereas sustaining profitability in an business that famously operates on razor-thin margins.
“It nearly feels just like the retail CEO’s job in 2025 has been a marathon run, however at a sprinter’s tempo,” stated Norm Yustin, world omnichannel retail and luxurious follow chief at Russell Reynolds Associates, a management advisory agency.
Shorter ‘prove-it’ clocks
Whereas many child boomers are approaching retirement age, that’s not the one driver of retail CEO turnover. Sixty-four p.c of retail CEO departures this 12 months have been unplanned, together with removals, abrupt retirements and inner function shifts — whereas simply 29% have been a part of a deliberate succession, in keeping with Russell Reynolds.
Final month, Maly Bernstein, who served as Bluemercury’s CEO for 4 years, stepped down. A spokesperson for Bluemercury guardian firm Macy’s described Bernstein’s departure as a “private determination.” In January, Ulta Magnificence introduced that it was selling Kecia Steelman to the CEO function, efficient instantly, whereas Dave Kimbell, who was Ulta’s CEO for 4 years, would retire. And in Could, Ashley Buchanan was abruptly fired after solely 100 days as Kohl’s CEO, after the division retailer discovered he had did not disclose his relationship to a vendor.
As President Donald Trump’s commerce struggle raises considerations about inflation, an financial downturn and a dip in client spending, management specialists informed Trendy Retail that intervals of financial uncertainty typically result in CEO turnover. Goal, which has seen gross sales slide as customers in the reduction of on discretionary spending, is without doubt one of the most distinguished examples. The retailer introduced in August that longtime govt Michael Fiddelke will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO in early 2026.
Yustin stated many boards are utilizing this era of uncertainty to swap in leaders with new ability units, notably these versed in know-how and automation.
“It’s not only a pure evolution of management cycles,” stated Yustin. “Fast adjustments in technique require completely different management expertise.” Retail CEOs, Yustin stated, are being requested to modernize how their corporations function, from AI adoption to digitization, at the same time as boards anticipate them to maintain earnings regular within the meantime. “There are shorter ‘prove-it’ clocks,” he stated. “Boards are shortening the runway to those turnarounds or transformations.”
One CEO who’s the midst of main a significant turnaround, with a give attention to technological innovation, is Kelly Prepare dinner, who began as chief govt at David’s Bridal in April. David’s Bridal has filed for chapter twice in 5 years, most just lately in 2023. With almost 200 shops throughout the U.S. and Canada and round 5,000 workers, the retailer is betting on a brand new technique dubbed “Aisle to Algorithm.” The AI-driven push goals to broaden the corporate past robes right into a digital market for all issues wedding-related. When Prepare dinner spoke with Trendy Retail in July for a separate interview, she acknowledged that “there’s a number of calls for at this job” but in addition, “it’s very onerous to not be extremely captivated with this business.”
Retail CEOs like Prepare dinner are below intense strain to carry out in 2025, which can clarify why tenure within the client sector is so abbreviated in comparison with different industries. Russell Reynolds information present that the common tenure for a chief executives throughout industries has dropped from 7.7 years to six.8 years. In retail, half serve lower than 4 years.
The brand new ability set
In flip, the profile of a retail chief has modified dramatically.
For years, conventional retail corporations gravitated towards hiring retailers to run their corporations, in keeping with Craig Rowley, senior shopper companion at Korn Ferry, an organizational consulting agency. Retailers wished a pacesetter with particular purposeful experience, similar to sourcing and shopping for merchandise. “That ability set doesn’t essentially go away,” however it’s develop into much less vital to retail management, he stated.
Now, boards are centered much less on purposeful expertise and extra on a potential chief’s “imaginative and prescient,” Yustin stated. As we speak, retailers are on the lookout for CEOs with numerous experiences throughout operations, digital, advertising and marketing and extra. “Retail CEOs now should be technologists, along with retailers, along with mark entrepreneurs, along with provide chain leaders,” Yustin stated.
However discovering the suitable “hybrid chief,” as Yustin referred to as it, with sufficiently numerous expertise, has narrowed the expertise pool significantly, creating what he described as a “unicorn shortage of discovering these leaders which can be actually multifaceted and multi-dimensional.”
Retailers have began on the lookout for executives exterior the business. In January, Peter Stern took the reins at Peloton. His prior expertise contains management roles at Ford, the place he specialised in {hardware}, software program and sequence, and Apple, the place he managed the corporate’s subscription companies, together with Apple TV+, Apple Health+ and iCloud. Peloton pointed to Stern’s expertise with “scaling differentiated technology-oriented platforms” when it introduced his appointment.
Kroger has been conducting a seek for a brand new CEO for the reason that abrupt resignation of former CEO Rodney McMullen in March following a board of administrators investigation into his conduct, which the corporate stated violated its enterprise ethics coverage. The grocery store’s Chief Folks Officer informed the Cincinnati Enterprise Courier that the corporate’s subsequent CEO would be the first within the firm’s 143-year historical past to be chosen from exterior the corporate.
Management specialists stated they anticipate excessive ranges of CEO turnover at retailers to persist and even speed up due to ongoing uncertainties like tariffs and AI. “Till these truly stabilize a little bit bit, there can be turnover,” Yustin stated.
Crowley agreed. As he put it, “It’s going to be a wild journey for the subsequent 5 years.”
