# Which C-level seat turns over fastest?

The chief revenue officer. Half of CROs at B2B companies leave the seat within 27 months, sooner than any other C-level seat. CFOs stay 46 months and non-founder CEOs 64.

By Cristian Frunze, Founder of Kenso · Nov 13, 2026 · [Kenso Research](/research) No. 23 · Hiring and org design, Sales teams, Founders and startups

## Key findings

- **1.70** hazard ratio of leaving the seat for a CRO against a CFO, adjusted for company size, industry and start year. CPO 1.46, CMO 1.44.
- **31 months** median for B2B CMOs, not the 18 often quoted. Counting only CMOs who already left gives 24 months, which leaves out everyone still in the job.
- **96 vs 64** months in the seat for founder CEOs against CEOs who did not found the company, under the same sample rules.
- **14%** of COO exits were promotions to CEO, president, managing director or chair, against 6% or less for every other seat.

Half of the chief revenue officers hired by B2B companies leave the seat within **27 months**, sooner than any other C-level seat. Chief product officers (30 months) and chief marketing officers (31) come next. Chief financial officers stay 46 months, and chief executives who did not found the company stay 64.

These are medians from Kenso's internal data: 296,409 C-level seats held by 244,502 people at 116,592 B2B companies with 10 or more employees, started between 2015 and 2025, in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand.

**Figure 1. CROs leave the seat sooner than any other C-level executive**

Median months in the seat (Kaplan-Meier) for seats held by non-founders at B2B companies with 10 or more employees at the start, started 2015 to 2025 and followed to March 2026.

|   | Median months in the seat |
| --- | --- |
| CRO | 27 |
| CPO | 30 |
| CMO | 31 |
| COO | 41 |
| CTO | 41 |
| CISO | 44 |
| CFO | 46 |
| CEO (non-founder) | 64 |

*Source: Kenso internal data (company and career records Kenso uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

## How we counted

People list their jobs with a start and an end month. We picked out C-level titles with published rules (CEO, CFO, CTO, COO, CMO, CRO, CPO and CISO), tied each job to its company record and measured how long each person stayed in the seat. Someone still in the seat counts up to March 2026, and the survival method we use (Kaplan-Meier) keeps that information instead of dropping them. Founders are counted apart, because they hold the seat on different terms, and interim and fractional executives are left out.

## Half of CROs are gone by month 27

After one year, 85% of CROs are still in the seat. After two years 56% are, and after three, 37%. CFOs hold on longer: 92%, 75% and 59%. Non-founder CEOs: 94%, 82% and 70%.

**Figure 2. Half of CROs are gone by month 27, half of CFOs by month 46**

Share of executives still in the seat by months since they took it (Kaplan-Meier), for four of the eight seats. The line at 50% marks the median.

| Months since taking the seat | CRO | CMO | CFO | CEO (non-founder) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 6 | 97% | 97% | 98% | 98% |
| 12 | 85% | 88% | 92% | 94% |
| 18 | 68% | 73% | 82% | 88% |
| 24 | 56% | 63% | 75% | 82% |
| 30 | 44% | 51% | 66% | 75% |
| 36 | 37% | 45% | 59% | 70% |
| 42 | 30% | 38% | 53% | 64% |
| 48 | 26% | 33% | 49% | 60% |
| 54 | 22% | 28% | 44% | 56% |
| 60 | 19% | 25% | 40% | 52% |
| 66 | 16% | 22% | 37% | 49% |
| 72 | 14% | 20% | 34% | 46% |

*Source: Kenso internal data (company and career records Kenso uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

## The 18-month CMO is a myth

"CMOs last 18 months" is one of the most quoted numbers in marketing. At B2B companies the median CMO stays 31 months, and 63% are still in the seat after two years. Short figures are easy to produce: count only the CMOs who have already left, and the median falls to 24 months. That leaves out everyone still in the job, who are the people staying longest. The same shortcut puts CROs at 20 months and CEOs at 30.

## It is the seat, not the company mix

CROs could simply sit at young software companies that churn everyone. That does not explain the gap. After adjusting for company size, industry and start year, a CRO is 1.70 times as likely as a CFO to leave the seat in a given month, a CPO 1.46 times and a CMO 1.44 times. A CEO is 0.71 times as likely. The CRO is the fastest seat in every size band, every start year from 2015 to 2023, every country and four of seven industry groups. In the other three, one seat is faster by a month.

[Our study of VP of Sales tenure](/research/vp-of-sales-tenure) put VPs of Sales at 35 months on an all-industry basis. On the same basis, CROs last 27.

The data shows which seats turn over faster, not why. A plausible reading is that revenue, product and marketing chiefs are judged on numbers everyone can see, and replaced when the numbers miss.

## Small companies keep their CEO, not their CRO

We expected bigger companies to keep every executive longer. For most seats the reverse holds. At companies with 10 to 49 employees, CEOs stay 75 months, against 49 at companies with 1,000 or more; CFOs 50 against 41, and COOs 44 against 36. Revenue and marketing go the other way: CROs last 26 months at small companies and 30 at large ones, CMOs 29 and 36.

**Figure 3. Small companies keep their CEO longer, and their CRO shorter**

Median months in the seat by company size when the seat started: 10 to 49 employees against 1,000 or more.

|   | 10-49 employees | 1,000+ employees |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CRO | 26 | 30 |
| CPO | 31 | 31 |
| CMO | 29 | 36 |
| COO | 44 | 36 |
| CTO | 43 | 38 |
| CISO | 50 | 44 |
| CFO | 50 | 41 |
| CEO (non-founder) | 75 | 49 |

*Source: Kenso internal data (company and career records Kenso uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

Founders stay longest of all. Founder CEOs hold the seat for 96 months, against 64 for non-founder CEOs under the same sample rules. Counting companies of any size, 82% of founder CEOs are still in the seat five years after taking it.

## Where they go

Of 129,174 exits from 2015 to 2024, 69% moved to another company within a year, and 36% of all exits went straight into another C-level seat. Another 12% took a different role at the same company, 6% were promoted and 13% showed no new role within 12 months. The COO seat is the stepping stone: 14% of COO exits were promotions to CEO, president, managing director or chair, against 6% or less for every other seat.

**Figure 4. Most executives who leave the seat move to another company**

Next role on the profile, starting from 2 months before to 12 months after the exit, for 129,174 exits from the eight seats between 2015 and 2024.

|   | Share of exits |
| --- | --- |
| C-level seat elsewhere | 36% |
| Other role elsewhere | 34% |
| No new role in 12 months | 13% |
| Other role, same company | 12% |
| Promoted | 6% |

*Source: Kenso internal data (company and career records Kenso uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

## Seats are getting shorter

Seats started in 2021 to 2023 ended sooner than seats started in 2015 to 2017, in all eight seats. For CROs, the share still in the seat two years in fell from 61% to 52%, and for CPOs from 67% to 58%. Part of this may be a data effect: older profiles lose short jobs as people tidy them.

## What we expected

We wrote down seven predictions before reading the data. Four held: the CRO seat turns over fastest, CMOs last more than 24 months, founder CEOs stay at least 1.5 times as long as hired CEOs (exactly 1.50), and recent seats end sooner. Three failed. Only CMOs and CROs turn over faster at small companies, not most seats. COOs are promoted in 14% of exits, above the 10% we expected. And missing short jobs could move some medians by more than the 6 months we allowed.

## What the data cannot see

- **Short jobs left off profiles.** Of 22,921 executives whose job change Kenso's data picked up in June 2026, 23.8% no longer listed the job they had just left. If every missing stint was short, the medians would be lower: 23 to 24 months for CROs, 25 to 27 for CMOs and 51 to 55 for CEOs. The CRO stays the fastest seat.
- **Deleted profiles.** Executives who deleted their profiles are missing. If fast leavers delete more often, the medians run long.
- **Self-reported titles.** "CRO" means chief revenue officer here, not chief risk or research officer.
- **Six countries.** Executives who live elsewhere are missing.
- **Cause.** This compares seats. It does not show why executives leave.

## What it means for B2B teams

- **Plan for CRO turnover.** Half leave by month 27. Build a sales process and pipeline reporting that outlast the person running them.
- **Benchmark CMOs at 31 months, not 18.** The short figure counts only the ones who left.
- **Expect leadership changes at the accounts you sell to.** With CROs and CMOs at medians of 27 and 31 months, a list of revenue and marketing chiefs needs regular checks.
- **Founders outlast everyone they hire.** At the median, a founder CEO stays 96 months.

## Data and method

- **Data:** Kenso internal data: the public work histories and company records Kenso uses for sales and outreach, reused by Cristian Frunze for this study. People in six countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand.
- **Sample:** 296,409 C-level seats held by 244,502 people at 116,592 B2B companies with 10 or more employees when the seat started.
- **Date range:** Seats started 2015 to 2025, followed to March 2026. Exit routes for exits from 2015 to 2024.
- **Method:** Pre-registered survival analysis: Kaplan-Meier medians with 95% intervals for time in the seat, and a Cox model adjusted for company size, industry and start year. Headline numbers recomputed by an independent analysis.
- **Excluded:** Founders, counted apart; Interim and fractional executives; Companies with fewer than 10 employees when the seat started.
- **Privacy:** Aggregates only. Any group smaller than 50 people is suppressed, and no individual is named.

[Full methodology as Markdown](/research/executive-turnover/methodology.md) · [Download the full methodology (PDF)](/research/executive-turnover.pdf)

## Related studies.

- No. 7: [The 18-month VP of Sales is a myth: the median is 32 months](/research/vp-of-sales-tenure.md) - Oct 19, 2026 · Sales teams, Hiring and org design, Founders and startups. 32 months median tenure of a VP of Sales, CRO or Head of Sales. The median VP of Sales, CRO or Head of Sales stays 32 months, and 72.4% are still in the seat at 18 months. When the only sales leader leaves, the company falls about 10% behind its peers within a year. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/vp-of-sales-tenure/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/vp-of-sales-tenure.pdf).
- No. 3: [How fast does a B2B CRM go stale?](/research/crm-decay.md) - Oct 18, 2026 · Sales teams. 13.2% of decision makers change company or title within a year. About 13% of decision makers change company or title within a year. A 10,000-contact CRM loses about 117 accurate contacts a month. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/crm-decay/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/crm-decay.pdf).
- No. 22: [Do sales hiring sprees end in cuts?](/research/sales-hiring-sprees.md) - Nov 11, 2026 · Sales teams, Hiring and org design, Founders and startups. 28.7% of sales hiring sprees were followed by a cut within 18 months. Mostly not. 28.7% of software and IT companies that grew sales 50% or more in a year cut that team by a fifth within 18 months. Similar steady growers cut at least as often. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/sales-hiring-sprees/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/sales-hiring-sprees.pdf).

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