AJ Bell : FTSE 100 boardrooms show more stability than football club dressing rooms in 2022

FTSE 100 boardrooms show more stability than football club dressing rooms in 2022

Russ Mould

29 December 2022

Share:

AJ Bell press comment - 29 December 2022

• 53 league clubs changed their manager in 2022 compared to 13 changes in CEO (and nine in CFO) at FTSE 100 firms
• Average tenure of a FTSE 100 chief executive is 5.7 years (and that of CFOs is 5.3 years) compared to just 1.5 years for football league managers (and 1.9 years for the Premiership)
• Nine more FTSE 100 firms have already announced a change of CEO and 12 a change in CFO for 2023

"FTSE 100 chief executives and football club managers are both in the results business, one group in terms of profits and share prices and the other in terms of points and league positions, but in 2022 it looks like shareholders and boardrooms showed more patience than football club executives and supporters, even if headline stock market indices struggled to perform," says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. "Thirteen FTSE 100 firms saw a change in chief executive, bang in line with the post-2000 average, while a new manager pitched up at no fewer than 53 of the 92 Premiership and Football League clubs in 2022, with eight of those 53 getting in a new man (and they were all men) on two occasions.

Source: Company accounts. *2023 changes as already announced

"JD Sports Fashion was the only FTSE 100 firm which had two leaders in 2022, thanks to Kath Smith's appointment as interim following Peter Cowgill's departure. She then stepped aside, having smoothed the transition to Régis Schultz, who took over in September. Other FTSE 100 firms with interim leaders at the moment include Prudential, Reckitt Benckiser and RS Group. The last-named is due to personal reasons in the case of Lindsley Ruth, while Reckitt's Laxman Narasimhan jumped ship to Starbucks, leaving former BAT boss Nicandro Durante to temporarily take the reins. Prudential has identified and appointed its new CEO, Anil Wadhwani. He will take the helm from Mark FitzPatrick in February.

"These interim appointments contributed to a total of 13 changes in FTSE 100 CEOs in 2022. This was an increase on 2021's unusually low total of eight and another nine changes have already been announced for 2023. Of those nine, only Unilever has yet to select its new leader, as the search for Alan Jope's successor continues.

Announced and effective in 2021
Company	In	Out	Date
Johnson Matthey*	Liam Condon	Robert MacLeod	01-Mar-22
Prudential	Mark FitzPatrick (interim)	Mike Wells	31-Mar-22
Burberry	Jonathan Akeroyd	Marco Gobbetti	01-Apr-22
Smith & Nephew	Deepak Nath	Roland Diggelmann	01-Apr-22
Anglo American	Duncan Wanblad	Mark Cutifani	19-Apr-22
Taylor Wimpey	Jennie Daly	Pete Redfern	26-Apr-22
JD Sports Fashion	Kath Smith (interim)	Peter Cowgill	26-May-22
B&M European Retail	Alex Russo	Simon Arora	26-Sep-22
Reckitt Benckiser	Nicandro Durante (interim)	Laxman Narasimhan	30-Sep-22
JD Sports Fashion	Régis Schultz	Kath Smith (interim)	21-Sep-22
M&G	Andrea Rossi	John Foley	10-Oct-22
RS Group	David Egan (interim)	Lindsley Ruth	16-Dec-22
Shell	Wael Sawan	Ben van Beurden	31-Dec-22
Announced but only effective in 2022
Company	In	Out	Date
Vodafone	Margherita Della Valle (interim)	Nick Read	01-Jan-23
Rolls-Royce	Tufan Erginbilgic	Warren East	01-Jan-23
Whitbread	Dominic Paul	Alison Brittain	10-Jan-23
Prudential	Anil Wadhwani	Mark FitzPatrick (interim)	Feb-23
Rightmove	Johan Svanstrom	Peter Brooks-Johnson	06-Mar-23
Halma	Marc Ronchetti	Andrew Williams	01-Apr-23
Hargreaves Lansdown	Dan Olley	Chris Hill	Nov-23
United Utilities	Louise Beardmore	Steve Mogford	End-2023
Unilever	TBC	Alan Jope	End-2023

Source: Company accounts. *Johnson Matthey announced when firm was in the FTSE 100 but became effective after its relegation to the FTSE 250

"An increase in the number of CEO changes was perhaps to be expected after the very quiet year that was 2021 (although that had in turn followed a year of huge boardroom turnover in 2020, which saw 22 changes in CEO, the highest figure this century).

"This is understandable in some ways, as 2022 was perhaps a more challenging year than 2021. Last year saw the global economy start to grow again after the sharp, but deep, recession of 2020 as vaccines began to work, lockdowns were (for the most part) ended and governments and central banks continued to provide monetary and fiscal stimulus respectively. This year provided perhaps a greater range of challenges, as inflation roared to a 40-year high, energy prices and utility bills rocketed, central banks began to increase interest rates and embark upon Quantitative Tightening programmes and forecasts of a recession from the Office for Budget Responsibility, Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund, among others, cast a pall of gloom.

Source: Company accounts, Refinitiv data

"In most cases the change in FTSE 100 leaders was pretty smooth in 2022. Burberry, Anglo American and Taylor Wimpey had all announced the change in 2021 and the first two had already identified their new leaders, although JD Sports, Smith & Nephew and Reckitt Benckiser saw their CEOs leave in a hurry, albeit for differing reasons. Laxman Narasimhan left Reckitt of his own free will to take the Starbucks job, but Peter Cowgill left JD under a corporate governance cloud and Roland Diggelmann was replaced by Deepak Nath at Smith & Nephew.

"As a result of all of these changes, the average tenure of a FTSE 100 CEO is now 69 months, or just under six years. Andrea Rossi, at M&G, and two interim leaders, Nicandro Durante at Reckitt Benckiser and David Egan at RS Group, are the newbies, as they have been in position for less than three months, while sixteen bosses have been in charge for more than a decade. Three of those - Next's Simon Wolfson, Homeserve's Richard Harpin and Ocado's Tim Steiner - have run their charges for more than 20 years, although Homeserve and Mr Harpin will leave this list shortly, upon the closure of Brookfield's £4 billion acquisition of the home repairs and improvements specialist.

"Another five bosses - Ivan Menezes at Diageo, Alistair Philips-Davies at SSE, Andy Ransom at Rentokil Initial, Albert Manifold at CRH and Stephen Carter at Informa - could all join this list as they reach their ten-year landmark in 2023. Shell's Ben van Beurden would have done so, but for his decision to leave at the end of this year.

"Halma's Andrew Williams and United Utilities' Steve Mogford will drop out of this list, however, as they are stepping down in 2023.

The sixteen FTSE 100 bosses to have served for at least ten years*
Company	CEO	Started	Years in charge
Next	Simon Wolfson	May-2001	19-Dec-22
Homeserve	Richard Harpin	May-2001	19-Dec-22
Ocado	Tim Steiner	Jan-2002	19-Dec-22
Halma	Andrew Williams	Feb-2005	19-Dec-22
Associated British Foods	George Weston	Apr-2005	19-Dec-22
Berkeley	Rob Perrins	Sep-2009	19-Dec-22
RELX	Erik Engstrom	Nov-2009	19-Dec-22
DS Smith	Miles Roberts	May-2010	19-Dec-22
United Utilities	Steve Mogford	Mar-2011	19-Dec-22
SEGRO	David Sleath	Apr-2011	19-Dec-22
Experian	Brian Cassin	Apr-2012	19-Dec-22
Melrose Industries	Simon Peckham	May-2012	19-Dec-22
3i	Simon Borrows	May-2012	19-Dec-22
Legal and General	Nigel Wilson	Jun-2012	19-Dec-22
Fresnillo	Octavio Alvidrez	Aug-2012	19-Dec-22
AstraZeneca	Pascal Soriot	Oct-2012	19-Dec-22

Source: Company accounts. *Data as of 28 December 2022

"The average FTSE 100 boss' tenure of nearly six years must make football managers green with envy. Only six of the 92 gaffers across the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two can beat that and their average time in the dug-out is just 18 months, or 1.5 years. Only twelve football bosses can point to three years in their position, although barring any unforeseen disasters West Ham United's David Moyes will reach this milestone on 30 December to take the total to 13.

The 14 longest-serving British football club managers
Club	Manager / coach	Started	Years in charge
Harrogate Town	Simon Weaver	21-May-09	13.6
Wycombe Wanderers	Gareth Ainsworth	08-Nov-12	10.1
Accrington Stanley	John Coleman	18-Sep-14	8.3
Liverpool	Juergen Klopp	08-Oct-15	7.2
Manchester City	Pep Guardiola	01-Jul-16	6.5
Coventry City	Mark Robins	06-Mar-17	5.8
Oxford United	Karl Robinson	22-Mar-18	4.7
Brentford	Thomas Frank	16-Oct-18	4.2
Leicester City	Brendan Rodgers	26-Feb-19	3.8
Sutton United	Matt Gray	01-May-19	3.6
Millwall	Gary Rowett	21-Oct-19	3.2
Arsenal	Mikel Arteta	20-Dec-19	3.0

Source: Utilita Football Yearbook, club websites, BBC Sport website. Data as of 28 December 2022

"In prior years, this study suggested that the further you went down the league pyramid, the greater the pressure seemed to be, perhaps because the prospect of relegation to non-league football was such a dreadful one for club chairmen, boardrooms and supporters to contemplate. Even if clubs such as Luton, Lincoln, Mansfield, Oxford, Hartlepool and Newport have managed to bounce back and regain league status, many more have not managed the return trip, including York City, Stockport, Halifax, Kettering, Aldershot, Darlington, Chesterfield, Wrexham, Torquay, Chester, Darlington, Hereford, Rushden & Diamonds, Maidstone and Grimsby. Some of those have dropped even further down the ladder or even gone broke and been re-formed as phoenix clubs.

"However, it seems to be Championship chairman who are now the twitchiest and most trigger happy. By dismissing Dean Smith after Boxing Day's 2-1 loss at Luton Town, Norwich became the seventeenth second-tier club to see a change in boss in 2022, while Smith was the twenty-first change overall in that division.

"That took the Championship ahead of League Two (sixteen clubs with a new boss and eighteen changes in total). Those figures compared to eleven League One clubs and nine in the Premier League. Eight clubs, four in the Championship and two each in Leagues One and Two, changed manager twice in the course of the year.

Average tenure for current incumbents
	Days	Months	Years
FTSE 100	2,093	68.8	5.7
Premier League	690	22.7	1.9
Championship	318	10.5	0.9
League One	705	23.2	1.9
League Two	527	17.3	1.4
AVERAGE	552	18.1	1.5

Source: Company accounts, Utilita Football Yearbook, club websites, BBC Sport website. Data as of 28 December 2022

"Granted, not all clubs change boss voluntarily. Some bosses jump ship to go elsewhere, as happened at Brighton & Hove Albion in the case of Graham Potter, who took over at Chelsea after the sacking of Thomas Tuchel, and Michael Beale, who swapped London's Queens Park Rangers for Glasgow Rangers. That left their former employers looking for a new manager.

"Nevertheless, the usual fate of a manager is the sack.

"The average Premier League and League One manager seems to get the most chance to prove their worth, at 1.9 years on average, compared to just 1.4 years in League Two and a frightening 0.9 years in the Championship, where perhaps the tantalising prospect of Premier League football also raises the stakes. The overall average tenure for a football manager of just 1.5 years is already being bettered by 84 bosses within the FTSE 100.

"Two seasons was all Cherie Lunghi got in the 1980s series The Manageress where she played Gabrielle Benson, the manager of a team in the men's Second Division (as it was then, Championship as it is now). That is one glass ceiling which women have yet to break in the UK, even if eleven FTSE 100 firms have female chief executives or chairs of the board, in the case of three investment trusts.

"Whitbread's Alison Brittain is stepping down in January, but Margherita Della Valle will take over from Nick Read at Vodafone in the same month, on an interim basis, while Louise Beardmore is preparing herself to take over from Steve Mogford at United Utilities in the next year, when the number of female bosses in the FTSE 100 will therefore rise to twelve, all other things being equal.

Company	CEO / chair	Started	Years in charge
Severn Trent	Liv Garfield	Apr-2014	8.7
Pershing Square	Anne Farlow (chair)	Oct-2014	8.2
Whitbread	Alison Brittain	Jan-2016	7.0
GlaxoSmithKline	Emma Walmsley	Apr-2017	5.7
Scottish Mortgage	Fiona McBain (chair)	Jun-2018	4.5
NatWest Group	Alison Rose	Nov-2019	3.2
F&C Investment Trust	Beatrice Hollond (chair)	Jan-2020	3.0
Aviva	Amanda Blanc	Jul-2020	2.5
Admiral Group	Milena Mondini de Focatiis	Dec-2020	2.0
Entain	Jette Nygaard-Andersen	Jan-2021	1.9
Taylor Wimpey	Jennie Daly	Apr-2022	0.7

Source: Company accounts. Data as of 28 December 2022

"Even allowing for one female CEO appointment in 2022 and two more already announced for 2023, advocates of diversity will still see that as a low hit rate, relative to the total of 22 changes in FTSE 100 CEOs.

"The post of CFO is seeing more progress here. Six of the ten new CFOs appointed in 2022 are women and four of the nine appointments made for 2023 are female, with the identity of three new number crunchers yet to be filled. Although Julie Brown will step down as Burberry CFO in 2023, the total of female CFOs is due to reach 24, with three more places still up for grabs.

Company	CFO	Started	Years in charge
Next	Amanda James	Apr-2015	7.7
Burberry	Julie Brown	Jan-2017	5.9
Vodafone	Margherita della Valle	Jul-2018	4.4
NatWest	Katie Murray	Jan-2019	4.0
Compass	Karen Witts	Apr-2019	3.7
Beazley	Sally Lake	May-2019	3.6
Abrdn	Stephanie Bruce	Jun-2019	3.6
Pearson	Sally Johnson	Apr-2020	2.7
Smith & Nephew	Anne-Francoise Nesmes	Aug-2020	2.4
Rightmove	Alison Dolan	Sep-2020	2.3
London Stock Exchange	Anna Manz	Nov-2020	2.1
Endeavour Mining	Joanna Pearson	Jan-2021	2.0
Centrica	Kate Ringrose	Jan-2021	1.9
Land Securities	Vanessa Simms	Jun-2021	1.6
Diageo	Lavanya Chandrashekar	Jul-2021	1.5
Hargreaves Lansdown	Amy Stirling	Feb-2022	0.8
Shell	Sinead Gorman	Mar-2022	0.7
Barclays	Anna Cross	Apr-2022	0.7
Smiths Group	Clare Scherrer	Apr-2022	0.7
M & G	Kathryn McLeland	May-2022	0.7
Aviva	Charlotte Jones	Sep-2022	0.3

Source: Company accounts. Data as of 28 December 2022.

Russ Mould Investment Director

Russ Mould's long experience of the capital markets began in 1991 when he became a Fund Manager at a leading provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management services. In 1993, he joined a prestigious investment bank, working as an Equity Analyst covering the technology sector for 12 years. Russ eventually joined Shares magazine in November 2005 as Technology Correspondent and became Editor of the magazine in July 2008. Following the acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media, by AJ Bell Group, he was appointed as AJ Bell's Investment Director in summer 2013.

Contact details

Mobile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Follow us: