Who's reaching the C-suite in 2020? These 16 roles have momentum

It takes rare skills to get ahead in 2020, with so many companies reeling from a global pandemic and all the workplace closures that have ensued. But if you’ve got this year’s most crucial skills, the triumph of a lifetime could be in store.

That’s the picture that emerges from LinkedIn’s latest analysis of leadership positions where the formal title begins with “chief.” This so-called C-suite spans 58 job titles, covering everything from chief finance officer to chief creativity officer. Any of these titles brings you into an inner circle of leaders with big pay, direct access to the chief executive -- and a guaranteed seat in the Zoom meetings where the big decisions are made.

Our Economic Graph team analyzed nearly 100,000 C-suite hires in the United States for the first 10 months of 2020. Overall C-suite hiring has ebbed nearly 18% from 2019’s pace, but 16 titles have bucked the trend. Nearly all these high-momentum titles are in areas so indispensable that companies are adding new capacities to the C-suite, despite hard times. 

As the chart below shows, one big cluster of C-suite titles is all about getting growth back on track, via oversight of sales, customers or revenue. Another hub centers on people and talent -- with an especially rapid rise in jobs for chief diversity officers.

The prominence of chief diversity officers coincides with a national awakening of concern about racial inequities in the wake of the May killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd while in police custody. Among the leaders speaking out is David Lougee, CEO of television-station operator Tegna.

“There is more work we can, should and will do to fight systemic racism,” Lougee said in a Nov. 9 conference call with investors, elaborating about the impact of the company’s new chief diversity officer, Grady Tripp, just a few months into the job. “We've already held more than 25 employee town halls, established local diversity councils and mobilized an employee-led working group,” Lougee said. Next up: focusing on diversity in Tegna’s recruitment and career development, while also deepening anti-bias training. 

For his part, Tripp, in a recent email exchange, points out that with diversity now a C-suite priority, “We don’t come off a topic until we have completely wrestled it to the ground.”

In absolute numbers, hiring of chief diversity officers has grown about 51% this year, but it's expanded at an even faster rate -- 84% -- as a proportion of total C-suite hires this year, relative to 2019’s share. While that’s the fastest expansion of any C-suite job this year, the title itself is still relatively uncommon in corporate America, accounting for less than half of 1% of all C-suite hires. 

But the role of chief diversity officer is less rare than it used to be. Companies hiring CDOs in 2020 include iHeartMedia, Broadridge Financial, CMS Energy, Korn Ferry and Sony Music. Add it all up, and as my LinkedIn colleague Bruce Anderson wrote in September, being head of diversity "is the job of the moment."

The C-suite title with the second most momentum this year is chief growth officer, which has seen a 46% leap in its proportion of total C-suite hiring. It’s a fluid title that often combines oversight of marketing, strategy and other functions. The title has been popular for a long time among consumer products companies (such as Clorox), but it’s now popping up more often at tech companies.   

Two finance-related titles -- chief underwriting officer (+43%) and chief investment officer (+24%) -- ranked third and fifth on this year’s list of C-suite titles with the most proportional momentum in 2020. Underwriting titles are found almost exclusively in the insurance industry; investment titles are the preserve of money management. Both fields may be seeing faster than usual turnover this year, creating more openings. 

Chief revenue officer holds the No. 4 spot in 2020’s rankings, with 29% growth in its proportion of total C-suite hiring. That’s often a stepped-up version of running sales, with additional oversight in marketing, customer service and customer success. LinkedIn data shows that this CRO title is gaining ground especially quickly in corporate services and health care.

Chief legal officer -- which might be the ultimate counter-cyclical job -- ranks sixth, and chief commercial officer is seventh, with a big lift from the manufacturing sector. 

Regardless of the specialty, there’s widespread agreement that when a specific domain becomes important enough to win a spot in the C-suite, that’s a powerful signal about a company’s overall priorities. 

Years ago, diversity and inclusion were seen mostly as a compliance functions, or a way of recruiting more Black employees, observes Michael Hyter, who in June became chief diversity officer at Korn Ferry, the executive-recruiting firm. By now, Hyter told HR Executive in an interview earlier this year, his field has “evolved to being more of a strategic value to the entire talent lifecycle.”

Or, as Tegna’s Tripp put it this week: “Inclusion and diversity is a top of mind focus for our CEO, so that trickles down to the rest of the leadership team, which is invaluable. . . .We have been able to make some important decisions in real-time during C-suite meetings that have turned into near-immediate positive impact for our employees.” 

Methodology 

 LinkedIn's Economic Graph team analyzed nearly 100,000 C-suite positions in the U.S., as listed on LinkedIn profiles. By comparing data from January to October in 2020 with the same period in 2019, we ranked the year-over-year growth in the hiring proportion of each individual C-suite title relative to all C-suite positions hired in a given year.  Data scientists Brian Xu and Jenny Ying contributed to this report.