Financial services CEOs have short tenures

The chief executives of financial services firms in the FTSE 100 have been in their jobs for just 3.9 years on average, compared to 4.4 years for the heads of firms in all sectors, a survey shows

David Prosser of Legal and General heads the financial services longevity poll at 10.7 years, followed by Charles Brady of Amvescap at 10.2 years, the survey by Cantos shows.

Both are still far from matching the staying power of Sir Kenneth Morrison of Wm Morrison Supermarkets, who at 34.6 years has been going longer than the head of any other FTSE 100 company.

Financial services chiefs were well represented at the other end of the table, with Michael Dobson at Schroders and Jim Sutcliffe at Old Mutual coming in at just over six months each, a shade longer than Mervyn Davies at Standard Chartered. Richard Pym at Alliance and Leicester has been in his post for 30 days.

John Viney, Europe chairman of the headhunter Heidrick & Struggles, said the average length of tenure of chief executives had been going down for 20 years.

He said this was partly because they were often asked to do the impossible with companies that were in the wrong markets or were the wrong size.