CFO Succession in the UK: Why Most Organizations Aren’t Ready

This article is part of our CFO succession series, examining the distinct succession challenges facing boards and finance leaders across EMEA and APAC.

CFO turnover in the FTSE100 remains elevated, with no clear sign of easing. Across the UK, tenures are shortening, the talent pool is thinning, and the role itself is becoming more complicated to fill.

According to RRA’s Global CFO Turnover Index, the average FTSE100 CFO tenure fell to just 4.95 years in 2025, down from a seven-year average of 6.4 years. Retirement from executive careers remains the single biggest driver of departures, and demand for proven CFOs continues to outpace supply.

This is not cyclical fluctuation—it is structural pressure on one of the most demanding roles in the C-suite. For organizations still treating CFO succession as something to address when a departure is announced, the gap between that assumption and reality is widening.

We spoke with Jim McGlone, RRA UK’s Financial Officers Leader, about what is driving this pressure and what it means for how organizations approach CFO succession.

Why UK CFOs are leaving

Many of today’s CFOs took up their roles during the post-COVID investment cycle, when growth plans were being reset and, in some sectors, capital was more readily available. In a higher-interest, cost-sensitive environment, those plans have not always delivered. Where performance is flat or has fallen short, organizations are reassessing whether they have the right CFO for what comes next.

But performance pressure is only part of the story. The most capable CFOs are also in constant demand.

“Experienced CFOs with track records of delivery and impact are regularly hearing about the most exciting roles in the market.”

— Jim McGlone

CEO turnover adds a further dimension, with new CEOs frequently reassessing the partner they need in the CFO seat. Some experienced CFOs are choosing to retire earlier than anticipated, while others are stepping into broader enterprise leadership roles. The cycle is self-reinforcing: every departure creates a vacancy that draws from the same pool of proven talent.

Why hiring externally is not enough

When a CFO departs, the instinct is to go to market. But the external market is tighter than many organizations expect, and over-reliance on it carries risk.

According to RRA’s Global CFO Turnover Index, nearly half of FTSE100 CFO appointments in 2025 came from outside the organization. For CEO roles, the proportion is significantly lower, reflecting stronger internal pipelines. The gap suggests that, when it comes to their most senior finance role, too many organizations are dependent on an external market they cannot control.

For those that recognize this, the priority shifts to building a credible, multi-year internal pipeline. And that starts with looking beyond the individual role.

CFO and CEO succession belong in the same conversation

The most effective boards are not developing a CFO successor in isolation. They are planning CFO and CEO succession as one integrated conversation.

“The CFO and CEO have to work as a pair. If your CEO is a first-timer still growing into the external-facing demands of the role, you often need a CFO who can step up and anchor them—presenting to investors, engaging with analysts, and increasingly acting as a deputy CEO. Critically, there needs to be trust and balance in that relationship.”

— Jim McGlone

But getting the pairing right is only part of the challenge. The harder part is ensuring the successor is ready for a role that is changing.

Developing a successor for a role that’s changing

One FTSE250 company illustrates what this looks like in practice. With the incumbent CFO likely to retire or step up to CEO within the year, the organization began preparing the CFO’s number two more than twelve months in advance. They increased her exposure to auditors, investors, and the board, while assigning critical strategic projects to accelerate her development. This was supported by structured coaching focused on finessing presentation and stakeholder management skills.

“With a 12-month time frame you have an opportunity to flag to key stakeholders that someone is ramping up towards the CFO role and to give them structured development. That exposure gives them the best chance of being appointed—and more importantly, of being successful in role.”

— Jim McGlone

Jim describes this as a year-long interview for the top finance role.

But being the obvious successor is not the same as being ready—and that gap is growing as the role itself evolves.

“When I speak to CEOs of first-time CFOs, the message is often the same—they were technically watertight, but it took time for them to impact as board-level business leaders or establish themselves as genuine strategic partners to the CEO.”

— Jim McGlone

Tomorrow’s CFO must be comfortable interpreting data, shaping commercial decisions, and partnering closely with the CEO on long-term direction. Access to capital remains critical, as does the ability to communicate clearly with investors and the market in a volatile macro environment. Yet many internal successors remain underexposed to this strategic dimension.

The most effective organizations address this deliberately—reallocating stretch assignments, increasing board exposure, and creating opportunities to build the capabilities successors will ultimately be assessed on.

Operational depth does not become irrelevant. It remains critical in driving performance and managing risk, particularly in volatile conditions.

The challenge is not choosing between strategic and operational profiles. It is building a pipeline that has both.

Structured transition coaching can accelerate this shift. Assessment against a clearly defined future success profile—linked to the evolving needs of the business—combined with targeted development helps close the gap between potential and readiness. But there is no shortcut. Preparing credible successors is measured in years.

From annual review to ongoing discipline

Turnover may ease as retirement cycles stabilize, but the structural pressures on the CFO role are not going away. Performance expectations are rising, the mandate is expanding, and capital cycles are becoming more volatile—all while the external market offers less flexibility than it once did.

CFO succession can no longer be a governance item revisited once a year. It must be integrated with CEO planning, aligned to business lifecycle, and supported by sustained investment in internal leadership.

In practice, this means starting two to three years before an anticipated departure, identifying two to three internal successors, and assessing them against a success profile that evolves with the business. It also means benchmarking internal candidates against the external market and ensuring transition plans are in place well before they are needed.

Organizations that treat succession as an ongoing discipline will manage transitions from a position of strength. Those that do not may find themselves searching externally at precisely the moment the market offers the least choice.