I have long been fascinated about who is named as a “Named Executive Officer” for ’34 Act reporting purposes and it’s good to keep an eye on the trends to see how your company compares. This recent blog from “The Conference Board” provides the latest stats and here are eight interesting things to note:
- CEO and CFO inclusion is nearly universal – as it should be since they are essentially required
- Business unit heads remain the most prevalent non-CEO/CFO NEO category
- Chief operating officer (COO) remains another core NEO role, with modest recent increase in prevalence
- Legal roles (CLOs, general counsel, corporate secretaries, and chief compliance officers) recorded the largest absolute increase of any non-CFO category
- Technology leadership has gained prominence, with CTOs and CIOs rising
- Human capital and commercial leadership has also expanded materially
- Chief marketing officers (CMOs) has declined
- Several emerging executive titles – such as chief data officer, chief diversity officer, chief information security officer, and chief sustainability officer – have appeared in recent years, but their representation remains limited and inconsistent
