Board Refreshment: 10-Year Low for New Director Appointments

Drawing on the 2026 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index, this piece reports that new S&P 500 director appointments have fallen to their lowest level since 2016 and turnover dropped to 0.7 new directors per board, even as 99% of boards run annual evaluations and a third use a third-party evaluator. It highlights a persistent governance-execution gap: boards assess performance but too rarely translate those insights into refreshment, director performance action, and strategy oversight.