A total of 148 Chief Executive Officers left their posts in September, down 3.9 percent from the 154 announced in August, the highest monthly total on record. September departures are the second highest of the year, according to a report released Wednesday by global outplacement consultancy and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Last month’s total is 46.5 percent higher than the 101 CEOs who left their posts in September 2017. With the exception of August, September saw the highest monthly total since May 2006, when the same number of CEOs left their posts.
Third-quarter departures reached 396, the highest quarterly total of CEO changes since the firm began tracking CEO turnover in 2002. CEO changes in the third quarter were 36.5 percent higher than the 290 CEOs tracked in the second quarter and 32.4 percent higher than the 299 CEO changes recorded in the same quarter last year.
