Raphael Stevens

CEO exits at U.S. public companies hit a record in 2024 as they faced competitive and strategic challenges.
Turnover included chief executives at U.S. companies that have long dominated in their industries — like Boeing, Nike and Starbucks.
Consumer-focused companies, which are more susceptible to changing tastes and trends, generally have higher turnover than industries like oil and gas or utilities, which tend to have internal and longer-tenured CEOs.

Clockwise from top: Former Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (CNBC), Starbucks former CEO Laxman Narasimhan (Getty Images), former Nike CEO John Donahoe (Reuters), former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (Getty Images)
TL: CNBC | TR: Getty Images | BL: Reuters | BR: Getty Images

Retired, ousted or poached, CEOs headed for the exits this year.
U.S. public companies announced 327 chief executive changes this year through November, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

That’s more than in any other year since at least 2010, when the firm first started tracking the turnover. It’s also an 8.6% increase from last year.
Turnover included CEOs at U.S. companies that have long dominated their industries — like Boeing, Nike and Starbucks. The pace of change points to those companies’ customers, investors, hedge funds or boards growing impatient with sales slumps or strategic missteps in an otherwise strong economy when consumers proved they were willing to spend.
CEO changes slowed during the pandemic, when companies were suddenly faced with lockdowns, remote work, supply chain difficulties and shortages, if not outright survival. They later faced higher borrowing costs, inflation, labor shortages, shifting consumer preferences and other challenges.
Over the past 14 years, 2021 had the lowest number of replacements at 197.
“The cost of capital, the speed of transformation, is creating faster turnover,” said Clarke Murphy, managing director and former chief executive of Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory firm.

Murphy said it was easier to stand out for poor performance in an otherwise strong market.
“In years of 20-plus-percent S&P [500] returns two years in a row, any company that’s significantly underperforming, the spotlight has been on, and boards of directors moved faster than they might have moved five or seven years ago,” Murphy said.
Consumer-focused companies, which are more susceptible to changing tastes and trends, generally have higher turnover than industries like oil and gas or utilities, which tend to have internal and longer-tenured CEOs.
The recent spike in turnover comes even as the number of public companies has dropped.
Here are some of the major U.S. CEO changes so far this year:

Intel

The semiconductor company ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger earlier this month, nearly four years after he was appointed to turn the chipmaker around and better compete with rivals.
Intel’s stock price and market share had collapsed as the artificial intelligence wave boosted chipmaker Nvidia while Intel struggled to crack into the business.
A successor hasn’t yet been named.

Boeing

The aerospace giant announced former CEO Dave Calhoun’s departure in March, part of a broad executive shake-up. It came nearly three months after an unsecured door plug blew off midair from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines, plunging the company back into a safety crisis after years of problems across its defense and commercial aerospace business, frustrating the leaders of some of its biggest airline customers.
Calhoun himself was appointed in the last days of 2019 to succeed ex-CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was ousted for his handling of the aftermath of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max in 2018 and 2019.

Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg visits the company’s 767 and 777/777X programs’ plant in Everett, Washington, U.S. August 16, 2024. 
Boeing | Marian Lockhart | Via Reuters

Calhoun was succeeded in August by Kelly Ortberg, a three-decade aerospace veteran and former Rockwell Collins CEO, whom Boeing plucked out of retirement in Florida to steady the company.
In the midst of a labor strike, which ended last month, Ortberg announced thousands of layoffs and slashed costs elsewhere to conserve cash as Boeing works toward stabilizing production.

Starbucks

With sales shrinking in its biggest markets, Starbucks poached Chipotle Mexican Grill star CEO Brian Niccol to turn around the coffee chain’s fortunes, replacing Laxman Narasimhan. The company’s shares soared nearly 25% when Niccol’s appointment was announced in August.

Brian Niccols, CEO of Starbucks, speaking with CNBC on Oct. 31st, 2024. 

In the 100 days since his appointment, he’s announced plans to bring the company “back to Starbucks” and refocus on what first attracted customers to the coffee chain. Early stages of the strategy include making its coffee shops more welcoming, trimming its lengthy menu and speeding up service.
Chipotle, meanwhile, named insider and industry veteran Scott Boatwright to the Mexican food chain’s helm in November.

Nike

The shoemaker replaced CEO John Donahoe in September with Elliott Hill, a company veteran who started as an intern at Nike in the 1980s.
Donahue had helped Nike grow sales since he took the helm, from $39.1 billion in fiscal 2019 to $51.4 billion in fiscal 2024, but growth eventually stagnated after he moved away from wholesale partners like Foot Locker and Macy’s and lost sight of innovation.

Peloton

A darling of the pandemic, the home fitness equipment company had struggled since return-to-office mandates started rolling in.
In 2022, Peloton brought in former Spotify and Netflix executive Barry McCarthy to take over for founder John Foley, but he stepped down in May after the company announced yet another restructuring.
In October, Peloton announced Peter Stern, a former Ford executive and Apple Fitness+ co-founder as its third CEO. Stern has a background in growing subscription-based services, and Wall Street is hopeful he’ll bring Peloton to profitability by cutting costs and focusing on its high-margin subscription revenue.

Kohl’s

In an aerial view, a customer walks in front of a Kohl’s store on November 26, 2024 in San Rafael, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Kohl’s CEO Tom Kingsbury is stepping down on Jan. 15, the off-mall department store said late last month, and he will be succeeded by Ashley Buchanan from crafting mecca Michaels.
Kohl’s has seen its comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, drop in each of the past 11 quarters, and its stock price slumped.

WW International

The weight loss company formerly known as Weight Watchers announced in September that CEO Sima Sistani would step down immediately.
WW International has struggled, with shares falling more than 80% this year. It tired to reorient itself under Sistani’s tenure to include a platform that links customers with popular weight loss drugs.
— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report. More

Nike CEO Elliott Hill outlined his strategy to return the company to growth after the retailer blamed deep discounting for declining revenue and profit.
The longtime Nike veteran, who returned in October, said the company is focused on turning the business around and returning “sport” to the center of everything it does.
Nike beat on the top and bottom lines for its most recent quarter, though revenue and profit were down year over year.

Customers shop at a Nike store in an outlet mall in Los Angeles, Nov. 8, 2024.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

Nike’s turnaround will take a bit longer than expected under new CEO Elliott Hill, who outlined his strategy to return the company to growth on Thursday after the retailer blamed deep discounting for declining revenue and profit.
The sneaker giant has been relying on promotions to drive sales, and it plans to return its online business to a full-price model, but first, it will need to aggressively liquidate old inventory through “less profitable channels,” said Hill and finance chief Matt Friend.

“What I’ve seen is traffic in Nike direct, digital and physical, has softened because we lack newness in product and we’re not delivering inspiring stories,” said Hill. “The result is we’ve become far too promotional … Entering the year, our digital platforms were delivering roughly a 50/50 split of full price to promotional sales. The level of markdowns not only impacts our brand, but it also disrupts the overall marketplace and the profitability of our partners.”
As a result, Nike expects gross margins to be down between 3 and 3.5 percentage points during the holiday quarter. It also expects sales to be down low double digits, worse than what analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected.
While expectations were low for Nike’s most recent quarter headed into Thursday’s release, the sneaker giant handily beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Here’s how Nike did in its fiscal second quarter of 2025 compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 78 cents vs. 63 cents expected
Revenue: $12.35 billion vs. $12.13 billion expected

Nike shares initially spiked following the results but pared gains after Hill delivered his opening remarks on a call with analysts.

Nike’s reported net income for the three-month period ended Nov. 30 fell to $1.16 billion, or 78 cents per share, compared with $1.58 billion, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier.
Sales fell to $12.35 billion, down about 8% from $13.39 billion a year earlier.
Hill, who started with Nike as an intern in the 1980s before leaving the company in 2020, is tasked with turning around the world’s largest sportswear company after it fell behind on innovation, ceded market share to competitors and botched its selling strategy.
“I have an irrational love for this company. I know Nike inside and out, take pride in what the brand stands for and want to see the company succeed,” Hill said in his opening remarks to analysts. “In a moment where our team, brand and business are being challenged, my singular focus is to help get us back on track, to get back to winning.”

Elliott Hill, president and CEO of Nike, Inc.
Courtesy: Nike

During his opening remarks, Hill delivered a resounding rebuke of the strategies that have come to define his predecessor John Donahoe’s tenure as CEO.
He said the company had spent too much of its resources focused on driving online sales, paying for performance marketing and isolating wholesale partners — strategies that he now plans to unwind. He acknowledged that key wholesale partners feel Nike has turned its back on those partnerships and said the company is now working to build back their trust.
“We know our sales teams will have to earn every ‘open to buy’ dollar, but we’re investing to make sure our partners feel supported,” said Hill. “We’ll do more than just sell in our products. We’ll actively support mutually profitable sell-through. Simply put, we will win when our partners win.”
That’s good news for partners such as Foot Locker, JD Sports and Dick’s Sporting Goods, which rely on Nike products to drive sales.
Hill also called out a criticism that has swirled around Nike for the last couple of years: that the company lost sight of what had long defined the brand — athletes and performance — leading it to cede market share to competitors such as Asics, On Running and Hoka.
“We lost our obsession with sport,” said Hill. “The reliance on a handful of sportswear silhouettes is not who we are.”
Hill appeared to be referencing the company’s previous decision under Donahoe to focus growth on three key franchises — Air Force 1s, Dunks and Air Jordan 1s. For years, those lifestyle brands drove sales, but Nike made so many of the shoes that they became commonplace and uncool. As a result, Nike is trying to cut back supply, which it has said will impact sales in the short term, but hopefully not the long term.

Sneaker sales

During the most recent quarter, sales at Nike’s store and online were down 13% while wholesale revenues were down 3%. The steep discounting contributed to a 1 percentage point decline to gross margin, which came in at 43.6%, slightly better than the 43.3% StreetAccount analysts had expected.
Inventory, another area for concern, was flat compared with the prior year at $8 billion. Units were up, but that was offset by lower product input costs and a shift in product mix.
Still, inventories were higher than the company wants them to be, especially given “recent sales trends,” Friend said.
While Nike saw sales down in all four of its geographies, results were better than expected in all regions except for China, which saw sales decline 8% to $1.71 billion, below the $1.75 billion StreetAccount had expected.
In North America, Nike saw sales of $5.18 billion, an 8% decline but ahead of the $5.01 billion Street Account had expected. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, sales were down 7% to $3.30 billion, slightly ahead of the $3.26 billion StreetAccount had expected. And in Asia Pacific and Latin America, sales fell 3% to $1.74 billion, ahead of the $1.62 billion analysts had expected. 
Converse, which Nike acquired in 2003, has also dragged down the company’s overall performance, with sales down 17% during the period to $429 million, far below the $462.6 million that analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected.
Nike’s shift away from Dunks and Air Force 1s as well as its steep discounting has also affected Foot Locker, which missed Wall Street’s estimates on the top and bottom lines in its third-quarter report Dec. 4 in part because of soft demand for Nike products, its CEO Mary Dillon told CNBC at the time. 
Since Hill took the helm just over two months ago, he has scored a few wins. The National Football League announced Dec. 11 that it had renewed its contract with Nike after it briefly courted other bidders. Amid criticism for falling behind on innovation and botching a uniform release for Major League Baseball, the NFL’s decision to renew its contract with Nike through 2038 was a major vote of confidence. 
Now, Nike is the exclusive uniform provider for the NFL, MLB, and the National Basketball Association.
Shares of Nike were down about 27% in 2024 as of Wednesday afternoon, compared with a roughly 27% gain for the S&P 500. More

Pro pickleball’s metrics are on the rise in its first year as a unified professional sport.
The average pay of players on the PPA Tour and MLP was $260,000, the league said.
The unified league, called the United Pickleball Association, has helped create efficiencies and opportunities across the business.

NEW YORK CITY, NY – SEPTEMBER 21: Anna Leigh Waters of the New Jersey Fives rallies the ball during a Major League Pickleball match on September 21, 2024 at Wollman Rink in New York, New York. (Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Pickleball is paying off for America’s best players.
The Professional Pickleball Association said on Thursday that the league is seeing growth in everything from attendance to players, and even salary.

In fact, the average pay of the more than 60 women on the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball was $260,000, according to the league. That is more than the highest-paid WNBA player’s annual salary and more than double the average salary of National Women’s Soccer League athletes.
The league said pro pickleball players earned more than $30 million collectively. This is based on salary alone and does not include endorsement deals.
Pro pickleball has come a long way since its inception.
Last December, some players formed a collective to voice their concerns about the future of Major League Pickleball after they were asked to take a 40% pay cut.
In February, Major League Pickleball and the Professional Pickleball Association completed their long-awaited merger, creating the United Pickleball Association. The deal also included $75 million of outside investment.

The PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball retained their own distinct brands. The PPA Tour features an individual bracket-style tour, while MLP is a team-based format.
Since the creation of the United Pickleball Association, the off-court drama has died down and the league has been working to refine its product and its business, led by stars like 17-year-old Anna Leigh Water, and top players Federico Staksrud and Ben Johns.

NEW YORK CITY, NY – SEPTEMBER 21: Ben Johns of the Carolina Pickleball Club rallies the ball during a Major League Pickleball match on September 21, 2024 at Wollman Rink in New York, New York. (Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

“It’s just these immense efficiencies that came about as we were able to merge, and as a result, it was great for our business,” said Samin Odhwani, United Pickleball Association’s chief strategy officer.
Odwhani said being under one umbrella created cross-promotional opportunities for players and also opened doors with sponsors and their sales team.
As a result, the sponsorship business grew by 50% year-over-year with more than 50 sponsors across both the PPA Tour and MLP brands.
Odhwani projects that UPA revenue should top $100 million in the next few years.
Viewership and interest also remain strong. In 2024, the league said 320,000 fans attended PPA Tour and MLP events, up 40% from the year prior. It also marked the first year in which revenue from ticket sales surpassed revenue from amateur registration, the league said.
Fans tuned into 350 hours of pickleball television in 2024 across Fox, CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime, Tennis Channel and others, according to the UPA.
PickleballTV, a joint venture between the UPA and the Tennis Channel, said fans watched more than a billion minutes of the sport this season.
“2024 was the best year ever for pro pickleball,” Odhwani said. “We had 320,000 plus attendees at our events, 27,000 amateurs playing and candidly, just a unified league.”
Heading into the new year, UPA said its priorities include expanding media rights partnerships, growing the amateur business and continuing to build existing pros into household names in the world of sports. More

The Food and Drug Administration said the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound is no longer in shortage, a decision that will eventually bar compounding pharmacies from making unbranded versions of the injection.
But the FDA said it will provide a 60 to 90-day transition period where it will not take action against pharmacies for making compounded tirzepatide, which will give patients time to switch to the branded version.
It’s the latest in a high-stakes dispute between compounding pharmacies and the FDA over a shortage of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s widely prescribed weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.

An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is displayed in New York City on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound is no longer in shortage, a decision that will eventually bar compounding pharmacies from making cheaper, unbranded versions of the injection.
“FDA has determined that the shortage of tirzepatide injection products, which first began in December 2022, is resolved,” the agency said in a letter. “FDA continues to monitor supply and demand for these products.”

The agency’s decision, based on a comprehensive analysis, marks the end of a period where certain pharmacies could make, distribute or dispense unapproved versions of tirzepatide – the active ingredient in Zepbound – without facing repercussions for violations related to the treatment’s shortage status.
Compounding pharmacies must stop making compounded versions of tirzepatide in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, the agency said. The FDA said that transition period will give patients time to switch to the branded version.
It’s a blow to some compounding pharmacies, which say their copycat drugs help patients who don’t have insurance coverage for Zepbound and can’t afford its hefty price tag of roughly $1,000 a month. Zepbound and other weight loss drugs are not covered by many insurance plans, but Eli Lilly’s diabetes counterpart Mounjaro is.
It’s the latest in a high-stakes dispute between compounding pharmacies and the FDA over a shortage of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in both Zepbound and Mounjaro. Eli Lilly has invested billions to expand its manufacturing capacity for tirzepatide as it struggles to keep pace with unprecedented demand.
A trade organization representing compounding pharmacies — the Outsourcing Facilities Association — sued the FDA on Oct. 8 over the agency’s decision to remove tirzepatide from its official drug shortages list just days earlier. The group alleges the FDA acted without proper notice, ignoring evidence that a shortage of tirzepatide still exists. It also contended that the FDA’s action was a coup for Eli Lilly that came at the expense of patients.

Following the suit, the FDA said it would reevaluate removing tirzepatide from the shortages list. That allowed compounding pharmacies to continue making copycats while the agency reviewed its decision.
Compounded medications are custom-made alternatives to branded drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs. When a brand-name medication is in shortage, compounding pharmacies can prepare copies of the drug if they meet certain requirements under federal law.
The Food and Drug Administration does not review the safety and efficacy of compounded products, and the agency has urged consumers to take the approved, branded GLP-1 medications when they are available. 
However, the FDA does inspect some outsourcing facilities that compound drugs, according to its website.

More CNBC health coverage

Patients have turned to compounded versions of tirzepatide amid intermittent U.S. shortages of the branded drugs, which carry hefty price tags of $1,000 per month before insurance and other rebates. Many health plans don’t cover tirzepatide for weight loss, making compounded versions a more affordable alternative.
The active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, semaglutide, has been in intermittent shortages over the past two years. But the FDA earlier this month said all doses of those drugs are now available.
The agency has yet to announce whether it is removing semaglutide from its shortage list — a decision that would likely affect even more compounding pharmacies since it is more widely used than tirzepatide.
Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro are under patent protection in the U.S. and abroad, and Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly do not supply the active ingredients in their drugs to outside groups. The companies say that raises questions about what some manufacturers are selling and marketing to consumers.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have both stepped in to address illicit versions of their treatments, suing weight loss clinics, medical spas and compounding pharmacies across the U.S. over the past year. The FDA last month also said it had received reports of patients overdosing on compounded semaglutide due to dosing errors such as patients self-administering incorrect amounts of a treatment.

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The FAA on Wednesday temporarily banned drone flights over 22 areas across New Jersey amid complaints of strange and often bright drones in the night sky.
The TFRs will last until Jan. 17 and cover large parts of central and northern New Jersey, including Elizabeth, Camden and Jersey City, the second most populous city in the Garden State.
Residents have reported seeing unexplained drones flying through sky for weeks, which prompted criticism from local officials and law enforcement.

A drone or SUAV, Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
Richard Newstead | Moment | Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday temporarily banned drone flights over 22 areas across New Jersey amid complaints of strange and often bright drones in the night sky.
“At the request of federal security partners, the FAA published 22 Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) prohibiting drone flights over critical New Jersey infrastructure,” the FAA said in a statement to CNBC.

The TFRs will last until Jan. 17 and cover large parts of central and northern New Jersey, including Elizabeth, Camden and Jersey City, the second most populous city in the Garden State.
Residents have reported seeing unexplained drones flying through sky for weeks, which prompted criticism from local officials and law enforcement, who said agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are not transparent enough with residents.
The FBI and DHS said last week that they had seen “no evidence” that the drone sightings “pose a national security or public safety threat.” They added that they had no evidence of a “foreign nexus” to the drones. On Saturday, the agencies said they had found “many of the reported drone sightings are, in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones.”
“At this point, we have not identified any basis for believing that there’s any criminal activity involved, that there’s any national security threat, that there’s any particular public safety threat or that there’s a malicious foreign actor involved in these drones,” a DHS official said over the weekend.
Meanwhile, drone stocks rallied this week after Palantir announced a partnership with Red Cat Holdings, coupled with the rise in interest around the mysterious sightings. Shares of Red Cat, a Puerto Rico-based drone provider, are up rougly 10% on Thursday. More

Sales of previously owned homes rose 4.8% in November compared with October, according to the National Association of Realtors
Sales were 6.1% higher than November 2023, the largest annual gain in three years.

Investors own more than 131,000 homes in the Las Vegas Valley now.
Las Vegas Review-journal | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Sales of previously owned homes rose 4.8% in November compared with October, according to the National Association of Realtors. That put them at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.15 million units.
Sales were 6.1% higher than November 2023. This is the third-highest pace of the year and the largest annual gain in three years.

This count is based on closings, so contracts were likely signed in September and October. Mortgage rates had fallen to an 18-month low in September but then shot higher in October.
“Home sales momentum is building,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “More buyers have entered the market as the economy continues to add jobs, housing inventory grows compared to a year ago, and consumers get used to a new normal of mortgage rates between 6% and 7%.”
The supply of homes for sale at the end of October was 1.33 million units, up 17.7% from November of last year. At the current sales pace, that represents a 3.8-month supply. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.
That tight supply continued to put pressure on prices. The median price in November was $406,100, up 4.7% year over year. That annual comparison is gaining again. Prices were up 4% annually in October.
Price gains were strongest in the Northeast and Midwest, at 9.9% and 7.3%, respectively. Roughly 18% of homes were sold above list price.

First-time homebuyers gained some ground, representing 30% of November sales, up from 27% in October, but slightly lower than a year ago. Cash is still king at 25% of sales. Investors, however, pulled back at just 13% of sales, down from 18% in November of last year.
“Is this an indication where investors or more number-crunching people think that home prices are at the top? Or is another reason that rents are no longer rising?” Yun queried.
The biggest sales gains continue to be on the higher end of the market. Sales of homes priced over $1 million surged 24.5% from November of last year, while sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 24.1%.
Mortgage rates are higher again today, with the average rate on the 30-year fixed surging 21 basis points Wednesday, following the latest Federal Reserve meeting. Fewer Fed rate cuts are now expected next year.

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