Employees stay at the same company for just under four years on average. That number shrinks considerably for millennials, who, by some estimates, remain with an employer for just under three years on average.
There are arguments in favor of and against job-hopping. On the one hand, job-hopping allows professionals to pick up new skills, expand their responsibilities, and more quickly propel them to executive positions. Starbucks’ new CEO Brian Niccol, for instance, held jobs at Procter & Gamble, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell before reaching the corner office at Chipotle. On the other hand, moving up within a company allows leaders to gain a deeper understanding of the organization, develop strong internal networks, and capitalize on their reputation. Although it’s increasingly become rare among younger professionals, staying at the same company for one’s entire career does still occur. Nike CEO Elliott Hill is among the latest Fortune 500 chief executives to climb his way from an entry-level role to the corner office.
Fortune compiled a list of current Fortune 500 executives who’ve spent their careers at the same company. It took these CEOs, on average, a little over 33 years to climb from the most junior position to CEO. Many held strategy and operations roles along the way, as well as tech roles. Many also led high-visibility projects, oversaw company-wide transformations and M&A deals, and sought out new ways to streamline business processes.
Several large companies that are not on the Fortune 500 also boast chief executives or presidents who spent their entire careers there. EY CEO Janet Truncale began her 33-year career at the consulting firm as an intern in 1991 and was elevated to the corner office in July 2024. Similarly, Roger Goodell joined the NFL in 1982 as an administrative intern. He became NFL commissioner in 2006.
Bob Iger, Walt Disney CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 31 years
Disney deems itself “the greatest place on earth.” Iger seems to agree based on his 50-year tenure at the company.
Iger kicked off his career at the Mouse House in 1974 as a self-described “not very good” weatherman for ABC in Ithaca, N.Y. After Disney acquired ABC in 1996, it appointed Iger to its senior management team as chairman of the broadcast company. Four years later, he became Disney’s president and chief operating officer and took the helm as CEO in 2005. Iger briefly retired in 2020 but returned to the corner office in Nov. 2022 after the ouster of his hand-picked heir, Bob Chapek.
Iger credits his success at Disney to three things: hard work, great mentors, and great luck. He also stated that it’s more important to be respected as a boss than to be popular. “If you try to run a popularity contest, then you don’t make the tough decisions. I think you have to be fair, accessible, and communicative—but popularity is not one of them,” he said at Bloomberg’s Global Business Forum in 2019.
Rodney McMullen, Kroger CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 36 years
McMullen’s adventures at Kroger began in 1978 as a part-time stock clerk in Lexington, Ky., while in college. He jokes that he had a Kroger scholarship. “I just had to work 32 hours a week to get it.”
Before his CEO appointment in 2014, he was named the supermarket chain’s CFO in 1995, where he led the $13 billion Fred Meyer merger. He took on the role of executive vice president of strategy, planning, and finance in 2000, was elected to the board of directors in 2003, and became president and COO in 2009. Former Kroger CEO David Dillon said in the announcement of McMullen’s appointment that the incoming CEO “played a leadership role in every major decision Kroger has made in the past 25 years,” which included the implementation of the Kroger Customer First and Associate First strategy, an effort for the supermarket to better connect with its customers.
When hiring, McMullen told The Wall Street Journal that he looks for people who are high energy and eager to learn. They must also be values-driven.
Mary Barra, General Motors CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 34 years
In 1980, Barra joined General Motors at 18 years old as a co-op student on the Pontiac assembly line. She served in numerous director roles, including executive vice president of global product development, where she oversaw all of GM’s suppliers and subsidiaries. GM named her CEO in 2014, the first female CEO in the car industry.
Barra has held on to the corner office for more than double the average amount of time for a female Fortune 500 CEO of 4½ years.
“You just got to do the right thing and move forward. That’s something I learned very early in my tenure as CEO going through the ignition switch crisis,” Barra told Fortune at the 2024 Most Powerful Women Summit. She noted that the best time to solve a problem is immediately because it rarely gets smaller.
Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 30 years
Walmart hasn’t strayed from the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500 ranking since McMillon’s CEO appointment in 2014.
McMillion joined Walmart in 1984 as an associate, making $6.50 an hour. He held an assistant manager role in Oklahoma while completing his MBA at the University of Tulsa. His career trajectory has seen him serve as the general merchandise manager of Sam’s Club, a subsidiary of Walmart, where he oversaw several divisions. In 2006, he was appointed CEO and president of Sam’s Club. Four years later, he became CEO of Walmart International until his promotion to Walmart CEO in 2014. In his 10 years leading the company, McMillon has grown revenue by $162 billion.
The 58-year-old credits his rise at Walmart to constantly raising his hand and volunteering for new projects. “People saw me handling responsibility one level up, which made it easy for them to promote me,” he said at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business distinguished speaker series in 2017.
Enrique Lores, HP CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 30 years
During Lores’s final year of his MBA program in 1989, Hewlett-Packard recruiters visited the school to promote an electrical engineering internship. “[They] were talking about printers like they were the best thing in life,” he joked in 2021.
He scored the electrical engineering internship and has been with the company since. Lores has held many leadership roles across functions at the computer company. He’s worked in printing, imaging, sales, system operations roles, and customer support.
In 2015, he led HP’s separation from Hewlett-Packard, one of the biggest splits in corporate America’s history. Post-split, he became EMEA president, overseeing sales and performance of these regions. He was tapped for the corner office in late 2019.
The true sign of a good leader, he said in a conversation at Santa Clara University, is one with strong values and who knows what they stand for and what their limitations are.
John Stankey, AT&T CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 35 years
Stankey began his career in 1985, immediately after undergrad, at the phone company Pacific Bell. As the phone carrier consolidated, Stankey rose through the ranks and ran parts of SBC Southwestern Bell. He was promoted to chief information officer of the carrier after it merged with AT&T in 2005 and chief technology officer in 2008. Much of Stankey’s pre-CEO experience was in strategy and operations roles. He was named chief strategy officer in 2012, became CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group in 2015, and CEO of WarnerMedia in 2018. In 2019, he was appointed COO and president, a role he held for 10 months before stepping into the corner office.
He told Fortune in August that luck and timing, neither of which people have much control over, helped him advance to senior levels. “Do your job and do it well, but don’t let the variables that are related to luck and timing dominate or impact your state of mind … try to be thoughtful and correct as many of the fundamental decisions as you can, but don’t let it paralyze you,” he said.
Arvind Krishna, IBM CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 30 years
Krishna began his career at IBM in 1990 on the Watson research team, now focused on AI technology research, where he remained for 18 years. In 2009, he became general manager of information management software, followed by leadership roles like senior vice president of hybrid cloud in IBM’s research department. He was appointed senior vice president of cloud and cognitive software in 2020, where he was the principal architect in IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat, one of the largest acquisitions in the company’s history. Before his CEO appointment in 2023, Krishna played a key role in developing the company’s key technologies, including AI, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain, said former IBM chairman Ginni Rometty.
Speaking at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business in 2023, Krishna said good leadership is about conviction and making decisions that empower others around a shared goal. “Merit and the right idea do carry a lot of weight. But you’ve got to be persistent, and it’s got to be clear to the organization you are in that you’re not doing it for personal gain … it’s for the betterment of the organization.”
Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 34 years
When Jordan arrived in Dallas in 1988 to interview for a Southwest Airlines programmer analyst role, he didn’t know much about the company. But during his interview, an employee had an issue with the airline’s computer system that he was able to fix. The company offered him a job the next day.
In his first 20 years at the airline, Jordan held several director and vice president roles, including executive vice president of strategy and technology and senior vice president of enterprise spend management, before being promoted to executive vice president of strategy and planning in 2008. In 2011, Jordan was tapped as Southwest’s chief commercial officer, spearheading its 2014 acquisition of AirTrain, a low-cost airline, and the launch of AirTran’s e-commerce platform and reward program. He was named executive vice president of corporate services in 2017 and served in this role until 2022 when he stepped into the corner office.
Jordan sat down with Fortune in 2022 to discuss the airline’s post-pandemic bounceback and how he motivates employees to follow his lead after a tumultuous period for those in the travel industry. “You have to demonstrate that you care. Words only go so far,” he said. “I need to be out there making sure I listen, understand what’s happening, engage with our employees, and just be there for them.”
Raj Subramaniam, FedEx CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 31 years
Subramaniam thought getting a job at FedEx was a long shot when, in 1991, he applied as an associate marketing analyst in its international division. It was the middle of a recession, and he’d only just received his MBA. Still, he figured he’d throw his hat in the ring. He got the job.
Early in his tenure at the company, Subramaniam was placed on a project heading the company’s international expansion despite being a junior-level employee. “Here I was at the bottom of the pyramid, but saying, ‘Hey, put me in chief,’” he recently told Time. That opportunity gave him visibility at the company, and he was promoted to vice president of marketing in Asia Pacific in 1996. From there, he served as regional president of Canada from 2003 to 2006 and senior vice president of FedEx Services from 2006 to 2013. Subramaniam also served as president and CEO of FedEx Express for three months before his promotion to COO and president in 2019. After three years, he was appointed CEO, becoming just the second chief executive in FedEx’s 53-year history.
Subramaniam believes a leader’s job is to build the right leadership team for execution. Once that’s in place, he said, the leader’s job “becomes being able to remove barriers for execution,” Subramaniam told The Conference Board.
Ron Vachris, Costco CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 42 years
Although less than a year in the corner office, Vachris is a Costco veteran.
He began as a forklift driver at Price Club, later purchased by Costco, in 1982 at the age of 17. He worked his way up to a store clerk while a student at Glendale Community College in Arizona and was elevated to assistant general manager and general manager positions in Colorado in 1989. Vachris played a sizable role in Costco’s expansion after the company acquired Price Club in 1993, moving back to Arizona to oversee the expansion. He held multiple leadership positions after the merger, including general manager of the Northwest region, senior vice president of real estate, and executive vice president of merchandising. In February 2022, he became the company’s chief operating officer and president before becoming CEO at the beginning of 2024.
Earlier this year, Vachris told Fortune that his leadership philosophy is not only customer-centric but also employee-centric. He listens to his underlings and trusts their insights. “You’ve got to give people room to try new things,” he said.
Elliott Hill, Nike CEO
How long it took to become CEO: 32 years
Hill has followed Nike’s directive to “just do it” and become the sports retailer’s newly-minted CEO.
In 1988, Hill joined the company as a 19-year-old intern in apparel sales. He spent much of his early career in this division, though he never held a role for more than four years before getting promoted. In 2000, he was promoted to his first vice president role, overseeing sales and retail in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. After serving as vice president and general manager of North America from 2010 to 2013, he was promoted to president of geographies and sales in 2016 before retiring in 2020. At the time of his retirement, he was president of consumer and marketplace, a $39 billion business.
The 60-year-old recently came out of retirement to return to Nike after former CEO John Donahoe stepped down following declining sales. Hill said in a recent Nike press release that his immediate goals to get the company back on track include refocusing on the consumer, understanding areas for improvement, and holding each other accountable for delivering on its promise.
