Are UK CEOs ‘Job Hugging’ Now Too?

It’s been all the rage across the pond: CEOs are exiting at record levels. A similar exodus in the UK appears to be over. 

For CEOs of companies in the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s largest stocks, turnover hit a four-year low of just 7% over the first nine months of 2025. It was the continuation of a slowdown that started last year, with the country’s firms focused increasingly on leadership stability. “There is just more reluctance to rapid change in the UK versus the US,” says Dominic Schofield, Korn Ferry’s chair of board and CEO services for the UK.

At public companies, some level of CEO turnover is normal. Over the five years through September, more than half of FTSE 100 companies (53) saw their CEOs leave. Slow growth and post-pandemic burnout led to a wave of voluntary and involuntary departures. “It’s probably a good thing they were moved on,” says Olivier Boulard, Korn Ferry senior client partner for board and CEO services. “When the board needs to replace the CEO, they do.”

Boulard says that economic uncertainty—over everything from tariffs to AI—likely factors into firms’ retention of their leaders. And leaders themselves want to stay or job hug until the climate improves. “If you had to choose today, you’d be more likely than not to keep the CEO,” he says. It’s a strikingly different approach from that of boards in the US, which are pulling the trigger more, or pressuring leaders to retire or leave once the business environment has shifted. “There are more activist investors in America, and the board will back them,” Schofield says. “Then they get a new CEO.” A “fire at will” practice has long been part of US business culture at all levels.

Experts also believe that UK firms are paying more attention to planned successions. Critics have said UK business may be slow to change,  such as recognizing the power of AI opportunities. As Schofield sees it, “There is just more reluctance to rapid change.”  But he adds that UK corporate governance has improved.  “We do beat ourselves up a bit, but there are some things we do well and that includes balanced corporate governance,” he says.

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