Korn Ferry’s Annual UK Retail CEO Tracker

Interested in leadership trends across British retail? Korn Ferry’s UK Retail CEO Tracker provides an annual, data-led view of CEO appointments across the UK retail sector.

Now in its 14th year, the report tracks changes at the top of the industry, highlighting patterns in CEO turnover, appointment routes, and leadership demographics.

This year’s report shows a sharp increase in CEO movement across UK retail.

Key findings from the most recent report:

• 40 permanent retail CEO changes were announced in 2025, compared with just 22 the year before. 
  
• 14 women were appointed CEO in 2025, the highest number recorded in the report’s 14-year history. 
  
• 37% of CEO appointments were internal hires.
• 23 first-time CEOs were appointed, representing 62% of all CEO appointments in 2025. 
• Just three ethnically diverse CEOs were appointed during the year, with no material change in representation over the past decade.

The increase in CEO changes reflects growing pressure on boards to act, says Korn Ferry’s Sarah Lim.

“Business performance was generally sluggish throughout 2025, which saw frustrated boards and institutional shareholders becoming increasingly vocal, and active, about lackluster business performance,” says Lim.

“This resulted in a significant number of CEO changes throughout the year.”

The findings underscore the importance of robust CEO sucession planning, particularly when boards are forced to act under performance pressure.

This year’s report also examines: