When a new CEO arrives at one of Italy’s largest listed companies, the head of HR often leaves within a year. After 29 CEO changes at today’s 40 FTSE MIB companies, 14 HR heads changed within 12 months. In years without a CEO change, the rate was 9%.
The pattern
| Period | New HR head | Periods | Share | 95% range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months after a CEO change | 14 | 29 | 48% | 31%–66% |
| Other years | 16 | 179 | 9% | 6%–14% |
Source: MVRK analysis of company filings, releases and leadership pages. CEO changes from 2019 to 2025.
The rate after a CEO change is five times the rate in other years. In 5,000 random shuffles of the CEO-change years, no gap was this large. The pattern holds in state-controlled companies (8 of 14 against 9 of 65) and in the rest (6 of 15 against 7 of 114).
The HR seat goes outside as often as the top seats
| Role | Outsiders | Appointments | Share | 95% range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO | 23 | 36 | 64% | 48%–78% |
| CFO | 24 | 39 | 62% | 46%–75% |
| HR head | 21 | 36 | 58% | 42%–73% |
Source: MVRK analysis, January 2019 to September 2026. Outsider means under 18 months in the group before the appointment.
A model with ownership and year finds no difference by role.
State control predicts outside CEO hires. It does not predict outside HR hires
| Owner | CEO and CFO from outside | HR head from outside |
|---|---|---|
| State-controlled | 24 of 30 | 10 of 18 |
| Family or founder | 12 of 21 | 5 of 9 |
| Widely held | 3 of 12 | 3 of 6 |
Source: MVRK analysis, January 2019 to September 2026. Counts shown because groups are small.
In our earlier work on CEOs and CFOs, state control was the strongest predictor of an outside hire. For HR heads it is not. State-controlled companies went outside for HR in 10 of 18 cases, close to other companies. The difference between roles passes a statistical test (p = 0.03), but the groups are small, so read the direction rather than the size.
Where new HR heads come from
| Job held just before | Appointments |
|---|---|
| HR job at another company | 16 |
| HR job in the same group | 9 |
| Other job in the same group | 6 |
| Other job at another company | 2 |
Source: MVRK analysis. 33 appointments with a known background.
Most new HR heads come from HR, and the largest group comes from another company’s HR. The non-HR route runs mostly through the company itself, from procurement, safety, strategy, services and sales.
What we see in our own searches
This is MVRK’s experience, not data. Almost every HR leadership brief we have run came within a year of a new CEO, across logistics, engineering, manufacturing and tech. The new CEO usually has a couple of names in mind, but most of these become searches from scratch. At this level in Italy they run on referrals more than job posts: other CEOs and HR heads suggest people they trust. Candidates are usually equally strong on paper, so chemistry with the CEO decides it.
The other side
- Some start dates come from press reports or were set to mid-year when the month was unknown. Dropping those rows still leaves 11 of 29 after a CEO change against 13 of 179 in other years.
- The data shows timing, not motive. Some HR changes were part of a wider reshuffle decided at the same time as the CEO change.
- We could not test whether the role has become more visible since 2019. For 29 of 40 companies we could not find how the HR head was disclosed in 2019.
What this means for HR leaders
If you lead HR, your succession and the CEO’s are linked. Show the board both plans together, and agree who would run HR if you left during a CEO change.
How we got these numbers
- Universe: the 40 FTSE MIB companies on Borsa Italiana’s list of 16 October 2026.
- Role: the most senior executive accountable for HR group-wide. Country, division and interim heads are excluded.
- Sources: governance and remuneration reports, leadership pages, press releases and internal-dealing lists. Trade press only for leads. High-confidence rows have two independent sources.
- Checks: a second coder, blind to the first, re-coded a random 20% of appointments: 7 of 7 comparable rows matched (Cohen’s kappa 1.0). A clean re-run of every script gave identical results.
- Gaps: three companies with no HR head found; seven low-confidence rows.
Outside studies point the same way. Russell Reynolds’ Global CHRO Turnover Index names CEO turnover as a driver of CHRO turnover. SHRM’s summary of recent CHRO studies reports that new CEOs often bring their own CHRO. Their definitions differ, so we compare direction only.
Version 1.0, October 2026. Aggregate tables in this article; appointment-level data available on request.