The Advisors' Blog

Here’s something that Meredith shared last week on the Proxy Season Blog over on TheCorporateCounsel.net:

I love to see data on topics like this. The makeup of a named executive officer (NEO) group says a lot about a company. While that sort of company-specific insight is lost in aggregated data, the information in this HLS blog post (based on a Conference Board report) about how the composition and compensation of the NEOs of the Russell 3000 and S&P 500 have evolved over the last five years offers insight into shifting power dynamics in company leadership and how companies are prioritizing their compensation spend. Here are some key points:

– Beyond the CEO and chief financial officer (CFO), business unit heads are the most prevalent NEO roles—although their prevalence has notably declined since 2021 [. . .] This points to a broader governance shift away from decentralized, division-centric leadership models toward more functionally centralized executive teams, where enterprise-wide leaders overseeing legal, technology, human capital, and commercial strategy increasingly occupy the most senior and highly compensated roles.

– CLOs, chief technology officers (CTOs), chief human resources officers (CHROs), and chief commercial officers (CCOs) are all increasing in prevalence as NEOs — reflecting increased corporate emphasis on enterprise risk, technology, talent, and revenue.

– By contrast, the number of chief marketing officers (CMOs) qualifying as NEOs declined between 2021 and 2025, suggesting that many companies are placing greater weight on commercial, pricing, and revenue leadership than on traditional brand and marketing leadership when determining top-tier executive prominence.

– While mandates such as data, cybersecurity, and sustainability are increasingly strategic priorities, they are not consistently reflected as standalone NEO titles, suggesting these responsibilities are often embedded within broader executive roles.

Also, there’s this good news for lawyers:

– Legal roles (CLOs, general counsel, corporate secretaries, and chief compliance officers) recorded the largest absolute increase of any non-CFO category, rising by 236 disclosures, from 1,154 in 2021 to 1,390 in 2025. This reflects the deeper integration of legal, regulatory, compliance, and enterprise risk considerations into core business strategy. CLOs and equivalent roles are most prevalent in industrials (17%), health care (16%), financials (13%), and consumer discretionary (12%), where regulatory exposure, litigation risk, and government interaction are especially pronounced.

– Liz Dunshee