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Fortune
Fortune
Lila MacLellan

The boomerang era: A slew of former CEOs are suiting up once more to take top roles at their old companies

Rob Katz speaks on stage. (Credit: Andy Cross—The Denver Post/Getty Images)

The hiring and firing of a company’s chief executive is the board’s most essential task—and yet struggling companies are still reaching back into history to find their next leader.  

This week the ski resort company Vail said that CEO Kirsten Lynch was stepping down, and would be replaced by former CEO Rob Katz. The news followed recent announcements about other so-called boomerang CEOs at UnitedHealth, and drugmaker Novo Nordisk. At the former, Stephen Hemsley, board chairman and a former longtime CEO, returned after ex-chief Andrew Witty retired, citing “personal reasons.” At pharmaceutical giant Novo, former longtime CEO Lars Rebien Sørensen was called in to help the board find a replacement for outgoing chief Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.

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