The departure of CEO of the top 10 of 2010 (Forbes)

Sunday, December 5, Jeffrey Kindler, which lasted Pfizer age four and a half surprised its shareholders by suddenly announcing that he was retiring immediately society. He issued a statement saying that he wanted to "recharge its batteries, spend time with his rare family and prepare for the next challenge to come".

Companies to regain their foot in the wake of the economic crisis, their leaders continue to leave at a steady pace. According to the replacement recruit 1 firm Challenger, gray & Christmas, 127 leaders announced their departure so far this year, almost exactly the same as the 1 122 which had announced last year at this time. Government and non-profit organizations have seen the heaviest turnover, with departures from CEO 189 among them.

Images: top 10 CEO departures 2010

"The course of the recession many firms retained their CEO, because that they felt it is risky to change direction along the way," says John Challenger, Chief Executive of Challenger, gray & Christmas. "They kept those waiting that they had a little more time to move". Today, explains Challenger, companies are beginning to turn to the new leaders to guide its profitability. We attend many of next year's turnover.

Several media, their industry in the hustle and bustle, companies seek new leaders with fresh ideas. To August Time Inc. announced replacing eight-year veteran Ann Moore with Jack Griffin, who was the President of the national press group of Meredith, who publishes Better Homes and gardens ladies' Home Journal.

NewsCorp had hired Owen Van Natta, a veteran of Facebook, turn around of MySpace, but in February Van Natta stepped down after only nine months. He was replaced by two co-chairs, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn. is rotating the company continued to turn when Hirschhorn left in June.

General Motors (GM - news - people) a Government bailout $ 50 billion resulted in a public savings and a new CEO. Starting from Edward Whitacre of GM coincided with the public offering of the company $ 23.1 billion. He stepped down Chief Executive on 1 September and will vacate the place of the President at the end of the year. It is on two jobs to Daniel Akerson, who, like Whitacre itself, was selected by the administration of the Obama. Whitacre had retired AT & t, where he was Chief Executive.

"Retirement" can mean different things to different frames: our top 10 list includes three directors who claimed to be retired from their posts this year. Omnicare (OCR - news - people) Executive Director long Joel Gemunder surprised shareholders when he announced his retirement at the beginning of August. He had led company more supplier country, the pharmaceutical products for the elderly, for 30 years. Board of the Omnicare tapped James "Denny" Shelton, Director of the company and the former President of the triad hospitals (TRI - news - people), to serve as its interim leader. Gemunder had faced criticism of his remuneration, 14.08 million, in 2009, but this amount like from peanuts since he landed a $ 130 million pension payment.

Appearance of impropriety and inadequate handling of an ecological disaster leads to turnover at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - news - people) and BP (BP - news - people), respectively. HP Board ousted his Chief Executive, Mark Hurd, after that it has filed or had someone file, fresh inaccurate reports believes HP had intended to conceal the extent of his relationship with a female entrepreneur. Counsel the woman contacted the company in June, pricing Hurd sexual harassment; an independent investigation by HP found no merit sexual harassment claim. Directors discovered expense reports while studying the fee and then pressed Hurd to resign. HP has replaced Hurd with Léo Apotheker, a former President and CEO of SAP (SAP - news - people).