From tenure to turnover, here’s how chief diversity officers compare to every single C-suite role

The good news: Far more Fortune 500 companies today have chief diversity officers than in 2019. 

The bad: Their tenure is by far the shortest among C-suite executives. 

Still, diversity heads’ increased prevalence atop corporate America offers valuable data points detailing how the role stacks up to its executive counterparts.

All told, women and people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups make up 49% of Fortune 500 C-suite roles, according to a recent analysis from the board and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart.

While representation differs across roles, chief diversity officers, unsurprisingly, have the most diversity, at 89%, compared to a mere 19% of chief operating officers (COOs). 

When broken down by race, 44% of CDOs come from historically underrepresented groups—and 76% are women.

Despite the growing backlash against ESG and DEI specifically, Spencer Stuart notes an uptick in the share of chief inclusion and diversity officers, suggesting that companies view DEI as critical to enhanced business performance.

At 59%, more than half of the Fortune 500 now has a CDO, representing a 2% increase from 2022 to 2023. Nevertheless, CDO turnover has been well documented. The average tenure for these leaders sits at 2.9 years, compared to seven for CEOs, making CDO tenure the lowest among all C-suite positions.

However, their turnover length, defined by Spencer Stuart as the percentage of leaders who stay in the role for just six months or less, is on par with other C-suite executives, at 7%. Chief operating officers have the shortest average tenure, with 14% staying in a role for less than six months. But that’s likely because the role often serves as a stepping stone for CEO aspirants, according to Spencer Stuart.

Finally, slightly over 40% of C-suite leaders (41%) are external hires. For CDOs, that number hovers in the middle of the pack at 46%, compared to 20% and 23% of COOs and CEOs, respectively, who are the least likely to be hired from the outside for their roles. Interestingly, chief diversity officers are the most likely to be hired from an outside industry, with 58% of external CDO hires coming from a different sector, suggesting that their skills are transferable and often industry agnostic—and that companies, at least until recently, haven’t developed a pipeline of potential CDO candidates internally.

More news below.

I’ll be in Davos for the World Economic Forum and have just a few slots left to meet with chief diversity officers. Shoot me a line if you’d like to meet on the ground.

Ruth Umoh
@ruthumohnews
ruth.umoh@fortune.com

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Delulu. Lululemon disavowed its founder Chip Wilson’s comments criticizing the athletic clothing company’s DEI stance. “Lululemon really has that opportunity to become a brand, but in order to become a brand, you’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in,” Wilson told Forbes. Fortune

Ackman’s playbook. After successfully campaigning for the ouster of former Harvard University president Claudine Gay, the school’s first Black president, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is deploying his activist shareholder tactics and backing outsider candidates for the Ivy League’s board. Separately, Ackman’s wife is embroiled in a plagiarism scandal of her own that Ackman is none too happy about. FT, Business Insider

Film furor. More than 260 Jewish actors and producers signed a letter assailing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, for failing to include Jews as an underrepresented group in its diversity efforts. New York Times

The Big Think

Joelle Emerson, the founder and CEO of DEI consultancy Paradigm, argues astutely in a Fortune commentary that the anti-DEI movement has always been on the perimeter. It's now gone mainstream after diversity work was thrust into the spotlight post-George Floyd and has been weaponized in the economic and social issues of the moment. "This year alone," Emerson writes, "it’s been blamed for a bank collapse, a train derailment, and, most recently, antisemitism on college campuses." Here's where the industry goes from here.