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Public companies have seen a revolving door of CFOs in the past five years.
That’s according to new research from Datarails, which showed that the average tenure of a CFO at a large public company in the 2018–23 period was just 3.1 years. Datarails examined SEC filings for 1,657 top-listed companies during that time, and found that almost half (48%) saw at least one CFO turnover event.
And some companies saw many more. Twenty-two companies went through four CFOs in that five-year period, including pizza chain Papa Johns, Datarails found. And 152 companies had three CFOs in five years, among them such household names as Dollar General, eBay, Guess, Expedia, and Under Armour.
A few CFOs moved up instead of on: 15 were promoted to CEO in 2023.
In the money: CFO compensation at top public companies—which includes salary, bonuses, stock awards, and options—averaged $3.8 million in 2023, Datarails determined. That’s up 8.6% from $3.5 million in 2022, and a healthy 35.7% from $2.8 million in 2018.
But that still pales in comparison to what CEOs receive. They brought home an average of $9.9 million in 2023.
Shake it off: The highest-paid CFO in Datarails’ study (we know you were wondering) was Joe Berchtold of Live Nation Entertainment. He earned $52 million in 2023, showing it pays to be associated with the Eras Tour. Comcast’s Michael J. Cavanagh was #2, earning $40.5 million, and Walmart’s John David Rainey was third, with $40 million.