The list of CEOs who took the reins of large U.S. companies at the dawn of the COVID pandemic or soon after it started in 2020 reads like a Who’s Who of corporate America: the chiefs of Nike, eBay, Abbott Labs, United Airlines, and Lockheed Martin are among the CEO class of 2020, a group of new chiefs who were tested in the first years of their tenures unlike few of their peers ever had been.
Learning a new job is a big challenge in the best of times, from getting to know the culture of a company and where the bones are buried, to the ins and outs of the business. But some 74 CEOs appointed at Fortune 1000 companies in calendar year 2020 had to also deal with bonkers supply chain disruption and plunging revenue, notably for airline and hotel businesses. They also had to contend with workforce concerns—whether employees were suddenly working from home, or, for those having to serve the public, responding to often abusive customers.
