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<\/a>In the months prior to the most ferocious stock market crash in history and the eruption of the biggest public health crisis of our generation, we witnessed the biggest exodus of corporate CEOs that we have ever seen.\u00a0 And as you will see below, corporate insiders also sold off billions of dollars worth of shares in their own companies just before the stock market imploded.\u00a0 In life, timing can be everything, and sometimes people simply get lucky.\u00a0 But it does seem odd that so many among the corporate elite would be so exceedingly \u201clucky\u201d all at the same time.\u00a0 In this article I am not claiming to know the motivations of any of these individuals, but I am pointing out certain patterns that I believe are worth investigating.<\/p>\nOne financial publication is using the phrase\u00a0\u201cthe great CEO exodus\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to describe the phenomenon that we have been witnessing.\u00a0 It all started last year when chief executives started resigning in numbers unlike anything that we have ever seen before.\u00a0 The following was published by NBC News\u00a0last November<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Chief executives are leaving in record numbers this year<\/strong>, with more than 1,332 stepping aside in the period from January through the end of October, according to new data released on Wednesday. While it\u2019s not unusual to see CEOs fleeing in the middle of a recession, it is noteworthy to see such a rash of executive exits amid robust corporate earnings and record stock market highs.<\/p>\n Last month, 172 chief executives left their jobs, according to executive placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.\u00a0It\u2019s the highest monthly number on record<\/strong>, and the year-to-date total outpaces even the wave of executive exits during the financial crisis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By the end of the year, an all-time record high\u00a01,480 CEOs<\/a>\u00a0had left their posts.<\/p>\n But to most people it seemed like the good times were still rolling at the end of 2019.\u00a0 Corporate profits were rising and the stock market was setting record high after record high.<\/p>\n Yes, there were lots of signs that the global economy was really slowing down, but most experts were not forecasting an imminent recession.<\/p>\n So why did so many chief executives suddenly decide that it was time to move on?<\/p>\n The following are just a few of the big name CEOs that chose to step down\u00a0in 2019<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n United Airlines \u2014 Oscar Munoz<\/p>\n Alphabet \u2014 Larry Page<\/p>\n Gap \u2014 Art Peck<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s \u2014 Steve Easterbrook<\/p>\n Wells Fargo \u2014 Tim Sloan<\/p>\n Under Armour \u2014 Kevin Plank<\/p>\n PG&E \u2014 Geisha Williams<\/p>\n Kraft Heinz \u2014 Bernardo Hees<\/p>\n HP \u2014 Dion Weisler<\/p>\n Bed, Bath & Beyond \u2014 Steven Temares<\/p>\n Warner Bros. \u2014 Kevin Tsujihara<\/p>\n Best Buy \u2014 Hubert Joly<\/p>\n New York Post \u2014 Jesse Angelo<\/p>\n Colgate-Palmolive \u2014 Ian Cook<\/p>\n MetLife \u2014 Steven Kandarian<\/p>\n eBay \u2014 Devin Wenig<\/p>\n Nike \u2014 Mark Parker<\/p>\n Of course the mass exodus of chief executives did not end there.<\/p>\n In fact, a whopping\u00a0219 CEOs<\/a>\u00a0stepped down during the month of January 2020 alone.<\/p>\n By then, it was starting to become clear that the coronavirus that was ripping through China could potentially become a major global pandemic, and I certainly can understand why many among the corporate elite would choose to abandon ship at that moment.<\/p>\n Some of these CEOs have made absolutely absurd salaries for many years, and it is much easier to take the money and run than it is to stick around and steer a major corporation through the most difficult global crisis that any of us have ever experienced.<\/p>\n The following are just a few of the well known CEOs\u00a0that have resigned so far in 2020<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Bob Iger, CEO of Disney<\/p>\n Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM<\/p>\n Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich<\/p>\n T-Mobile\u2019s CEO John Legere<\/p>\n LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner<\/p>\n Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga<\/p>\n Keith Block, co-CEO of Salesforce<\/p>\n Tidjane Thiam, CEO of Credit Suisse<\/p>\n Hulu CEO Randy Freer<\/p>\n It is important for me to say that I do not have any special insight into the personal motivations of any of these individuals, and every situation is different.<\/p>\n But I do think that it is quite strange that we have seen such an unprecedented corporate exodus at such a critical moment in our history.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, top corporate executives were dumping billions of dollars worth of shares in their own companies just before the market completely cratered.\u00a0 The following comes from\u00a0the Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Top executives at U.S.-traded companies sold a total of roughly $9.2 billion in shares of their own companies between the start of February and the end of last week, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.<\/p>\n The selling saved the executives\u2014including many in the financial industry\u2014potential losses totaling $1.9 billion, according to the analysis, as the S&P 500 stock index plunged about 30% from its peak on Feb. 19 through the close of trading March 20.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the stock market, you only make money if you get out in time, and many among the corporate elite seem to have impeccable timing.<\/p>\n Perhaps they just got really lucky.\u00a0 Or perhaps they were reading my articles and understood that COVID-19 was going to cause the global economy to shut down.\u00a0 In any event, things worked out really well for those that were able to dump their stocks before it was too late.<\/p>\n