Part of Lusha’s ongoing measurement of B2B data decay. Every finding in one place: How fast B2B contact data decays.
TL;DR
- What it is: Lusha’s Q1 to Q2 2026 Executive Mobility Report tracks C suite company change signals for four roles, CIO, CMO, CRO and CISO, from Lusha’s live signal database (515M+ verified contacts), covering January 1 to June 1, 2026.
- The numbers: 869 CIO, 792 CMO, 601 CRO and 287 CISO company changes. Together 2,549 of the 23,301 C suite and VP level moves tracked in the period, roughly 11%.
- The pattern: the CIO is the busiest of the four, with three times the CISO count and 45% more moves than the CRO. But the CRO creates the tightest buying window, because a new CRO runs a sales stack review inside the first 30 to 60 days.
- What we did not measure: tenure. This report counts moves. Where it refers to tenure trends, those are industry observations offered as context, not figures from our database, and they are labelled as such.
Published: June 2026. Updated: September 2026.
Data source: Lusha live signal database, 515M+ verified contacts, signals pulled June 1, 2026.
Signal window: January 1 to June 1, 2026, 108 working days.
Methodology note: role counts reflect contacts with a confirmed company change signal and a current title matching the specified role as of June 1, 2026. All data is aggregate; no individual names or employers are disclosed. Role totals reflect Lusha database coverage and are directional rather than exhaustive.
Executive summary
Four C suite roles. Four different move counts. One finding worth acting on: the role that moves least often opens the shortest window.
In Q1 to Q2 2026, Lusha detected 869 CIO, 792 CMO, 601 CRO and 287 CISO company changes. Together that is 2,549 of the 23,301 C suite and VP level company changes detected in the period, roughly 11% of senior level moves tracked.
The headline is not the volume, it is the ordering. The CIO count is three times the CISO count and 45% higher than the CRO count. The CMO sits between. The CISO is lowest in absolute terms, which is partly structural: not every organisation has one.
For outbound teams the practical question is which C suite change at a target account creates the tightest window. On the evidence here it is the CRO, not because CROs move more often than the others but because a new CRO’s first job is usually a stack review, and that review runs faster than the equivalent at any of the other three.
The four roles
Move counts and per day figures are measured. The review focus and response windows are guidance drawn from how these evaluations typically run, not values from the database. Treat them as a planning frame.
CIO: 869 moves, 8 a working day
The CIO is the busiest of the four roles in this dataset, at three times the CISO count.
Context, not measurement: the scope of the role has expanded faster than many organisations can sustain leadership continuity, with AI, security oversight and cloud transformation added to a traditional IT mandate. That makes the job both more attractive externally and more demanding internally, and a share of moves are people taking a larger remit rather than leaving a failure.
For technology vendors a new CIO is a direct signal for infrastructure, security, cloud, data and AI tooling. A CIO arriving somewhere new typically spends the first 90 days forming a view of the inherited stack. The window to influence that view is earlier than the decision.
Geographic pattern: globally distributed, with visible activity in the UK, France, Australia and India.
Industry pattern: concentrated in financial services, manufacturing and technology.
CMO: 792 moves, 7.3 a working day
The second busiest role here.
Context, not measurement: the CMO job is widely reported as the shortest tenured C suite role, a combination of quarterly measurement, attribution that is hard to prove and a marketing stack that changes faster than the people running it.
Two patterns are visible in the Q2 2026 moves. A meaningful share are executives joining AI native software and fintech companies that have grown past founder led marketing and are hiring a first professional CMO, which signals a stack being built from close to nothing. And established retail and financial services organisations are cycling CMO talent at an elevated rate.
For marketing technology vendors a new CMO is a high priority signal, because the stack review usually happens inside the first 60 days and tools tied to a predecessor’s preferences are the first to be questioned.
CRO: 601 moves, 5.6 a working day
Third of four by volume, first by urgency for anyone selling sales technology.
Part of the lower count is structural. The CRO title is younger than CIO or CMO, created at many companies between 2015 and 2020, so the total population is smaller. The commercial implication per move is larger: a new CRO evaluates CRM, data, sequencing, intelligence and enablement inside the first 30 to 60 days, and that evaluation often produces several vendor decisions, frequently including a data provider.
The moves in this window are weighted toward the US and UK, which tracks the concentration of software companies in both. A visible subset are CROs joining AI native platforms building an enterprise sales motion for the first time.
The seven day rule, and what it is. A new CRO three weeks in is already in vendor conversations. One five days in is still forming opinions. Reaching them inside a week means the conversation happens before a shortlist exists. This is judgement drawn from how these evaluations run, not a measured conversion window.
CISO: 287 moves, 2.7 a working day
The lowest count of the four, and the number that needs the closest reading.
The low absolute figure is partly structural: there are fewer CISOs than CIOs, CMOs or CROs, because not every organisation has one. The role concentrates in financial services, healthcare, technology and regulated industries.
Context, not measurement: the security industry widely reports declining CISO tenure, driven by regulatory pressure, the threat landscape and burnout. Our database counts moves rather than tenure, so we cannot confirm or quantify that from this data. What we can say is that 287 is the baseline, and if the reported tenure trend is real, the count should rise in future windows. We will publish the next reading rather than predicting it.
The geographic spread is more international than the other three roles, with activity across the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden and Italy in Europe, a growing market in India concentrated in financial services and technology, and US activity in financial services, defence and technology.
For cybersecurity vendors a new CISO is a high priority signal: they inherit the security stack and own none of it, so vendor relationships are open from day one.
Why the CRO window is shorter
The CRO role carries the sharpest operational clock of the four. A new CRO needs a working sales stack to show results quickly, so the evaluation happens fast and the decision is usually made before the 30 day mark.
A CISO can spend 90 days assessing an environment before touching a vendor contract. A CRO generally cannot, because the number they are measured on starts moving immediately.
What we did not measure, and what we would need to
This report counts detected company changes by role. Three things it does not do, stated plainly because the rest of the numbers are only as trustworthy as the boundary around them.
It does not measure tenure. Every reference to tenure above is industry context, marked as such. Measuring it would mean tracking start and end dates per person across employers, which is a different study.
It does not measure the response windows. Seven days for a CRO and 14 for the others come from how these evaluations are understood to run, not from conversion data we hold. They are a planning frame.
It counts detected moves only. A change we have not observed is not in the count, so every figure here is a floor. Role totals also reflect Lusha’s coverage of each title, which varies, and that is one reason the CISO number is low.
What this means for outbound teams
Monitor by role, not by “executive hire”
The four roles have different review focuses and different urgency. A single executive hire alert treats a new CIO and a new CRO as the same event. They are not. Separate monitoring per role, with its own response time and its own opening line tied to the review that leader is about to run.
The CRO is the highest urgency signal for sales technology
A new CRO evaluates the sales intelligence and data stack inside the first 30 days. Reach them in week one and the conversation happens before a shortlist exists. In week four, the shortlist is already written.
Watch the CISO count, do not assume it
287 is the baseline. If the widely reported tenure trend is real, that number rises. Build the monitoring now and let the next reading tell you, rather than acting on a forecast.
Map the buying group around the new executive
A new CIO does not choose infrastructure alone. A new CMO involves marketing operations and the data team. A new CRO brings in RevOps and often finance. When a target executive changes companies, mapping the rest of the group at the new account is the immediate next step, because the evaluation they are about to start will not be a solo decision.
Related resources
- How fast B2B contact data decays, and what it costs — every report on this, in one place
- B2B Contact Mobility Report — all 1,470,414 moves, by function and risk
- Find accounts with a newly hired executive — the play that runs this check on your own list
- Build a verified buying group for a target account — the next step after the move is detected
- Write the outreach when a contact changes jobs
Data pulled from Lusha’s live database. C suite move counts reflect contacts with confirmed company change signals during Q1 to Q2 2026. Run a live query to get the current state for any role, industry or geography.
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