Architects of Change: Technology Leadership in the Fortune 500

Our new normal of constant technological change has placed technology officers at the forefront of digital disruption and value creation. Once focused mainly on internal IT infrastructure, today's top technology leaders play a critical strategic role in driving innovation, harnessing AI, and shaping their organizations’ responses to technology transformation. Companies now rely on their top technology officers—usually chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), and chief digital officers (CDOs)—not just to support operations, but to proactively generate business value through technology.

To understand how organizations are navigating this dynamic tech environment, Russell Reynolds Associates recently analyzed the backgrounds, career paths, and remits of Fortune 500 technology officers. Complementing this analysis, we leveraged insights from our Global Leadership Monitor, a global survey of more than 3,000 board members, C-suite executives, and next-generation leaders, to understand the sentiment and outlook of technology officers amidst evolving market dynamics.

Our research highlights four key trends shaping technology leadership:

• While technology leaders recognize AI's immense potential, they are held back by talent shortages and technological readiness
• Digital transformation has pushed technology officers into strategic leadership faster than ever before
• Companies are increasingly looking outside their organization and industry for tech talent
• Gender diversity remains a stubborn issue at the leadership level, with women only accounting for 18% of Fortune 500 technology leadership

What’s keeping technology officers up at night?

To fully appreciate how technology leadership is evolving within Fortune 500 companies, it’s helpful to first understand how top technology officers themselves view their broader environment. Leveraging insights from Russell Reynolds Associates’ H2 2024 Global Leadership Monitor, we examined the challenges technology officers expect to face and their readiness to address them as they look toward the next 12-18 months.

Top technology officers identified several critical areas of concern, including technological change (63%), cybersecurity threats (61%), and uncertain economic growth (60%) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Tech officers’ top challenges & their preparedness to face them

^{Source: RRA 2024 H2 Global Leadership Monitor, Base N = 105 technology executives, , H2 2024}

Perhaps unsurprisingly, technology leaders tend to feel prepared to manage technology-related challenges, with 83% feeling prepared to tackle cyber threats and 64% expressing confidence in managing technological change.

However, their confidence significantly drops when addressing broader organizational challenges. For example, only 31% feel ready to navigate workforce transformation, and just 38% believe their organizations are equipped to address key talent availability.

Despite technology officers’ optimism around managing technological change and AI-driven growth opportunities, they lack confidence in the broader organization’s ability to respond. According to our H1 2025 Global Leadership Monitor, while 64% of global executives believe that AI has the potential to create new revenue streams, only 32% feel their organizations have the right technical talent to implement generative AI effectively.

^{Source: RRA H1 2025 Global Leadership Monitor, n= 1,777 CEO, C-level, next generation leaders, and board directors}

Additionally, technology leaders are demonstrating a much higher willingness to move roles than in prior years, jumping from 50% expressing interest in a move in 2022 to 74% in H2 2024 (Figure 2). This signals that tech officer turnover may begin to increase. One reason may be the growing gap between ambition and organizational readiness. While tech officers feel confident leading transformation, many face internal barriers such as talent gaps, limited cross-functional support, and unclear or shifting mandates. When considering new opportunities, tech leaders prioritize alignment with organizational mission, opportunities for meaningful impact, and cultural fit.

Figure 2: Tech officers’ willingness to make a career move: 2022 vs 2024

^{Source: RRA H1 2025 Global Leadership Monitor, n= 1,777 CEO, C-level, next generation leaders, and board directors}

The Fortune 500 technology leadership landscape

Figure 3: Fortune 500 top technology leadership landscape

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

1. Technology officers are taking on strategic leadership roles—but uptake varies by sector

Within the Fortune 500, 69% of technology officers hold seats on their company’s executive committees. This may be trending upwards—of the tech officers appointed since the start of 2024, 76% joined the ExCo (Figure 4). This shift likely reflects a broader organizational recognition that technology is a driver of long-term success. As digital transformation, cybersecurity, AI, and data-driven decision-making move to the center of competitive advantage, companies are placing technology executives at the highest level of decision-making to ensure technology leadership is fully integrated into business strategy.

Figure 4: Technology officers on the executive committee: Overall vs. recent appointments

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

Executive committee participation varies by industry sector, reflecting differences in digital maturity and the pace of innovation. The technology sector (85%) shows strong integration of tech officers into top decision-making bodies, while the industrials & natural resources sector trails at 64% (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Technology officers on the executive committee by industry sector

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

2. Tech titles are expanding beyond the standard “CIO”

The traditional “chief information officer” title is losing its dominance. Five years ago, 68% of top Fortune 500 technology leaders carried the CIO title; in 2024, this dropped significantly to 49% (Figure 6). In its place, we're seeing increased use of chief digital officer (15%) and chief technology officer (16%), along with various hybrid roles (19%), such as chief digital and information officer and chief strategy & transformation officer.

This combined role approach is gaining popularity, with 54% of appointments since the start of 2024 carrying hybrid titles. This highlights a growing focus on integrating front- and back-end technology under an individual leader, often incorporating responsibilities around product innovation, digital transformation, AI strategy, and customer experience.

Figure 6: Breakdown of tech executive titles in the Fortune 500

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

3. Companies are increasingly looking outside their organization and industry for tech talent

Fortune 500 companies are increasingly looking beyond their own walls, and even beyond their own industries, for technology leadership.

Over half (53%) of current top technology officers were externally hired into their roles. Of these, 39% had already served as a CIO, CTO, or CDO prior to joining, while 14% were “step-ups,” appointed as first-time top tech leaders (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Technology officer appointments: internal vs. external hires

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

This trend reflects a shift in hiring mindset: companies are recognizing that leadership potential, transformation capability, and a fresh perspective can outweigh traditional credentials or company tenure.

In addition, industry sector experience is no longer seen as a prerequisite. Among externally hired tech officers, 42% came from outside the company’s current industry sector (Figure 7). This aligns with sentiment data from the Global Leadership Monitor, which shows that 55% of technology executives are open to moving beyond their current sector, higher than any other executive group surveyed. For organizations, this represents a prime opportunity to bring in new leaders with diverse experiences and innovative perspectives who can drive meaningful change.

4. Women hold less than 1 in 5 of the top tech roles

Despite growing awareness and effort, women continue to be underrepresented in top technology leadership positions. Currently, women hold just 18% of these roles within Fortune 500 companies, with a whopping 33% of them being appointed in the past two years.

However, when women do make it to the top job, they’re proportionally more likely to be elevated into highly visible, strategically-integrated roles, with 83% of women tech leaders holding seats on the executive committee, compared to 65% of men tech leaders (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Gender dynamics in tech leadership appointments: ExCo roles vs non-ExCo roles

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, women N = 89, men N = 409 (Total N = 498).}

Our analysis found that 58% of women in top technology roles were recruited externally, compared to 52% of men. Among these external hires, 45% were stepping into a CIO, CTO, or CDO role for the first time (Figure 9). While the differences are not vast, they suggest that broadening search criteria beyond prior title or traditional experience can open valuable pathways for attracting a wider range of qualified candidates, especially when internal pipelines may be limited.

Figure 9. Gender dynamics in tech leadership appointments: Internal hires vs external hires

^{Source: RRA analysis of technology officers at 2024 Fortune 500 companies, N = 498}

Turning momentum into meaningful tech leadership change

Our analysis makes one thing clear: Fortune 500 companies are recognizing the strategic power of technology leadership. We see this in the growing number of tech officers seated at the executive table, the evolution of titles beyond the traditional CIO, and the increasing openness to cross-industry talent. These shifts reflect real progress, but translating trends into lasting competitive advantage will require deliberate action.

Redefine what “qualified” looks like: Some of the most successful recent appointments came from outside both the company and its industry. This highlights the value of diverse experiences over conventional credentials.

Organizations looking to lead should resist the urge to recycle familiar profiles and instead invest in building broader, bolder candidate pipelines.

Elevate with intention: Appointing technology leaders to the executive committee is only the first step in increasing the strategic impact of technology and innovation.

To fully activate technology leaders’ potential, organizations must give these leaders real influence, alignment with their C-suite peers, and a mandate that spans innovation, product, data, and customer value.

Bridge the perception gap: While technology officers often feel confident about leading transformation, the rest of the executive team often lacks the same conviction—particularly around talent and innovation readiness.

Closing this gap requires stronger alignment and communication between the tech agenda and enterprise-wide leadership.

Act on mobility: Tech officers are more willing than their peers in other functions to move across companies and industries.

For organizations, this creates a rare moment to attract new leadership with fresh perspectives; for incumbents, it’s a call to invest meaningfully in retaining and growing existing talent.

Add more optionality to your pipelines: When companies expand their technology leader search criteria beyond the traditional profile, they can identify candidates who may have been otherwise overlooked, expanding their recruiting pipelines to include a wider pool of qualified candidates.

External hiring, particularly for “step-up” roles, can be a powerful lever to surface untapped potential and shift the demographic profile of tech leadership.

Authors

George Head leads Knowledge for Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Sector. He is based in London.

Art Hopkins leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Officers practice. He is based in Atlanta.

Jesse Reich leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Officers practice in the Americas. He is based in New York.

Eric Sigurdson leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Chief Information Officers Practice. He is based in Chicago.

Suya Xiong leads Knowledge for Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Officers practice. She is based in Boston.