---
id: "claim-declining-c-suite-roles"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ Evolution of the C-Suite"]
tags: ["c-suite", "job-trends", "dei"]
related: ["entity-russell-reynolds", "concept-transitional-ai-roles"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic"]
sources: ["governance"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-governance"
originDay: 7
articleStem: "hbr-sig-56-csuite-board-reshaped-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-c-suite-and-board-roles-are-being-reshaped-around-ai"
sourceTitle: "How C-Suite and Board Roles Are Being Reshaped Around AI"
---
# Chief Digital Officer and Chief Diversity Officer roles are trending downward

Data from [[entity-russell-reynolds|Russell Reynolds]] (2019–2025) shows clear downward trends for specific C-suite titles:

- **Chief Digital Officers** are increasingly being subsumed into broader executive tech roles.
- **Chief Diversity Officers** are declining due to changes in political attitudes, a trend to absorb ESG/DEI into core strategy, or the outright abandonment of these initiatives.

The decline of static titles is the flip side of the emergence of [[concept-transitional-ai-roles]] — organizations shed yesterday's transitional titles as they mint new ones.

**Confidence: high · testable.**

**External validation (enrichment).** Partially supported for the *digital* CDO; mixed and contested for the *diversity* CDO. Multiple sources indicate Chief Digital Officer roles peaked and declined as 'digital' became embedded into core CIO/transformation roles. For DEI leadership the picture is more complex: some firms cut or fold DEI into ESG/HR under political, legal, and budget pressure; others retitle or broaden mandates ('Inclusion & Belonging,' 'People & Culture'). *Caveat:* the dataset likely reflects a downward trend in *open searches*, which is not the same as *net role elimination* — many roles are retitled or absorbed. The claim that CDO decline is driven by 'abandonment' is only partially true; integration into core strategy is also a major driver.