American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, GameStop, Dave & Buster’s, Cinemark, Tenet, Six Flags, Alkami, Tuesday Morning, J.C. Penney, Sally Beauty and Aimbridge Hospitality.
What do all of these companies have in common aside from being headquartered in North Texas?
Their chief executives all announced departures in 2021.
2021 saw the “Great Resignation” take hold among the rank-and-file workforce in America. Workers fed up with the status quo, stagnant wages and risky working conditions amid the pandemic began leaving their jobs in droves to reinvent themselves, focus on caretaking or find more rewarding work.
That trend also extended to high-paid executives, suggests an October report from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Grey and Christmas.
In the state of Texas, 104 CEOs departed from their roles this year as of November, according to the firm’s data. That’s right on par with the 105 CEO departures seen by November 2020.
Some of the departures in 2021 showed signs of obvious succession planning, like those at the major airlines, Dallas organizational psychologist and CEO adviser Lee Colan said. Other departures may have been borne of a desire to exit high-pressure jobs made more difficult by the pandemic.
But Colan isn’t convinced that chief executives are stepping down because they’re seeking greater purpose or looking to reinvent their careers.
“It’s not the same dynamic of supply and demand as you’re getting on the front lines,” Colan said. “All CEOs were forced to think and lead in different ways based on what employees need now. And some of them might not want to change, or are unable to make those changes to lead effectively in the new world of work.”
A number of the CEOs of large, publicly traded companies who transitioned out of their roles this year in Dallas-Fort Worth were in industries greatly affected by the pandemic.
Six Flags CEO Michael Spanos stepped down abruptly, and without comment, after just two years and was replaced by a board member.
It took Plano-based Cinemark until May 2021 to reopen all of its 325 U.S. movie theaters, despite previous start-and-stop attempts to do so in 2020 before a vaccine was available. Former Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi was actually ready to retire in 2020 but held onto the role through the initial and extremely uncertain phases of the pandemic, the company said.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly spent the last months of their tenures navigating staff furloughs, global travel restrictions, sharp spikes and dips in demand, and outright assaults on their employees.
Tenet’s chief executive Ron Rittenmeyer was one of more than 100 hospital CEOs who departed from the role this year, a number that has increased slightly since last year according to Challenger, Grey and Christmas. Rittenmeyer’s succession was planned, but hospitals have also been ground zero in the fight against the pandemic, and workers in the health care industry have died and quit their jobs at crisis rates.
Only one of the aforementioned large, North Texas companies appointed a CEO successor who was a woman, although nationwide more women were appointed to CEO positions this year than has historically been the case, according to Heidrick & Struggles.
In North Texas, former Michaels chief financial officer and PepsiCo veteran Denise Paulonis, 49, was appointed Denton-based Sally Beauty’s first female CEO.
And as the next class of of executives at a number of publicly traded D-FW companies take the reins, a new COVID-19 variant and shifting perceptions about work promise to keep them on their toes.
Colan says incoming chief executives will need to rely less on the fundamentals of finance and operations and more on leading in the new world of work where employees are desperate for flexibility and a sense of purpose.
“We have the need for purpose, the need for appreciation, the need for affiliation — those are three core needs as human beings we all have, regardless of industry, generation and culture,” Colan said.
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A dozen D-FW CEOs stepped down this year. Their replacements face more of the same in 2022. - The Dallas Morning News
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