Hospitals reported 111 CEO exits in 2025, a 7% increase from 104 recorded in 2024.
The data comes from executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ Feb. 4 report on CEO turnover in the U.S.
Seven things to know:
1. Fourth-quarter 2025 saw 16 of the year’s 111 total hospital CEO exits: nine in October, three in November and four in December.
2. Across 29 industries and sectors, 2,032 CEOs departed in 2025, down 9% from 2,221 in 2024.
3. U.S. companies across industries and sectors recorded 383 CEO exits in fourth-quarter 2025 — the lowest quarterly total since the fourth-quarter 2022, when 266 exits were reported. For comparison, 415 CEO exits were recorded in the third quarter of 2025.
4. In December 2025, 149 CEO exits were reported across industries and sectors, a 22% increase from 123 in November.
5. December also marked the seventh consecutive month CEO exits across industries and sectors were lower than the corresponding month in 2024.
6. “The election seemed to set off a wave of leadership exits at the end of 2024 and into the start of last year,” Andy Challenger, workplace and labor expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report. “But after months of rapid-fire change in the face of geopolitical unrest, policy shifts, economic uncertainty and evolving technology, companies are signaling some stability.”
7. Since Dec. 22, 2025, Becker’s has reported on more than a dozen hospital and health system CEO exits.
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