Healthcare CFOs have the shortest average tenure of any industry tracked — 3.7 years, nearly a full year below the 4.5-year cross-industry average — according to the 2026 mid-year Volatility Report from Crist|Kolder Associates.
The executive recruiting firm tracks the backgrounds and turnover of C-suite executives across a portfolio of 665 Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies, 9.7% of which are healthcare organizations. This year’s data covers Jan. 1, 1996, through July 31, 2026.
Here is the average CFO tenure by industry:
- Financial — 5.1 years
- Technology — 5 years
- Consumer — 4.9 years
- Services — 4.5 years
- Energy — 4.2 years
- Industrial — 4 years
- Healthcare — 3.7 years
Healthcare ranked fourth on the list in 2025, with an average tenure of 4.8 years. The overall average CFO tenure last year was 4.7 years.
The report noted that 10.7% of companies in the portfolio overall have changed CFOs so far in 2026, putting the year on pace for the highest annual CFO turnover rate since the pandemic. Healthcare also posted one of the higher industry-specific turnover rates, with 15.3% of healthcare companies swapping out their CFO year to date, trailing only the industrial sector (19.4%).
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