How to make the release match the moment.
Tom Corfman is a senior consultant at RCG.
As companies switch CEOs in record numbers, we have tips on writing press releases announcing the new big boss.
“Every CEO transition is a defining moment — marked by intense visibility, real risk and deep personal significance for leaders and boards alike,” executive recruiting firm Spencer Stuart says in a report released this month.
Unfortunately, the press releases rarely match the moment.
Among the 1,500 largest publicly traded companies, 168 named new chief executives in 2025, the most turnover since 2010, according to the Spencer Stuart report. That’s one in nine companies in the S&P 1500 index.
The announcements of these new hires have many of the same failings as all press releases.
The releases suffer from uncertainty about the audience. Is it journalists, who must ignore the release’s hype to write a profile about the new CEO? Is it stock analysts, who are most interested in the new CEO’s track record and vision for the company? Is it employees, who are also concerned about those things but want to know what kind of leader the new hire will be?
A good press release can provide hints to answers to these questions. Instead, these announcements are often mired in clichés and jargon. A better way to introduce a new CEO is with brand journalism, using the journalistic tools of reporting, interviewing and storytelling.
We have four tips (not including subparts) to make press releases announcing a new big boss a little bit better.
1. Simplify the first sentence. “Josh D’Amaro Named Next Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company,” was the nice, tight headline the entertainment giant put on its Feb. 3, 2026, announcement: But the first sentence of the press release reads:
“The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors announced today that, in a unanimous vote held on Monday, it elected Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro to become Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, effective at the upcoming Annual Meeting on March 18, 2026, when he will succeed longtime Disney CEO Robert A. Iger.”
That’s a mouthful at 54 words. Here’s five comments.
1.a Change the subject. Make the company the subject of the sentence, not the board. This is a common practice, and it adds wordiness.
It’s not that the directors aren’t important, or that we shouldn’t say that they’re the ones making the choice. They just don’t need to be in the first sentence.
“The Walt Disney Company announced …” is three words shorter.
The board chair is always quoted explaining the selection of CEO, as he does in the Disney release. That’s a more convenient spot to mention the board.
1.b Eliminate “announced today.” Everybody knows it’s an announcement. It’s a press release! With a date!
Instead of “announced,” choose a verb, such as “named” or “selected” that shows the company doing something rather than saying something. For example:
“The Walt Disney Company appointed …” saves two words.
1.c Don’t repeat the company. Another common practice, wrong in our view, is repeating the company’s name in the first sentence. Stripped down, the first sentence reads: “The Walt Disney Company … elected … Josh D’Amaro to become Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.”
Is there another company that Disney would announce the CEO of?
1.d Save the board vote. Companies routinely say the choice of CEO was unanimous. Is it ever otherwise?
To make the first sentence more readable, move the vote lower in the release, where the board’s role in making the selection is mentioned.
1.e Here’s my version of the first sentence that’s 40% shorter with just 32 words:
The Walt Disney Company has appointed Josh D’Amaro, currently chairman of its theme parks and cruise ships division, as chief executive officer effective March 18, 2026, succeeding longtime CEO Robert A. Iger.
I replaced “Disney Experiences” with a description of that division because some reporters and individual shareholders won’t immediately recognize the formal title of the business segment.
2. It’s not a contract. Even though it’s called a press release, the document often reads like a contract because the lawyers get carried away. Consider the first sentence of this press release issued Feb. 12, 2026, by a major used car dealer:
RICHMOND, Va. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — CarMax, Inc. (NYSE: KMX) (“CarMax” or the “Company”) today announced that Keith Barr has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors (“the Board”), effective March 16, 2026.
Lawyers are great at identifying possible ambiguity where there is none. Is there really anyone who wouldn’t recognize what CarMax or the Company refers to? Or the Board?
Communicators should have a conversation with the legal team about the use of parenthetical definitions. The practice comes from drafting contracts. Some legal experts caution against its overuse.
Definitions in the middle of a sentence “add a bit of clutter,” according to Ken Adams, author of a book on writing contracts.
Removing those definitions is “a small victory for efficient drafting,” he wrote. “And those small victories add up to something meaningful.”
Press releases should follow the AP Stylebook widely used by journalists, which says, “Do not follow an organization’s full name with an abbreviation or acronym in parentheses or set off by dashes.”
While we’re at it, isn’t it time for publicly held companies to move the ticker symbol out of the first sentence to the “About the company” section of the release with a link to the investor relations page? It’s a relic of the bygone ink-and-paper era.
3. Be true enough. When UnitedHealth Group on May 13, 2025, immediately replaced CEO Andrew Witty with its current chairman and former chief executive Stephen Hemsley, the insurer said Witty was stepping down for “personal reasons.”
Maybe, but the company’s share price was in the middle of a steep decline. On the day the company switched CEOS, UnitedHealth candidly withdrew its profit forecast for 2025, citing rising expenses.
“Inside the Spectacular Downfall of UnitedHealth and Its CEO,” was the headline on a June 2 story in The Wall Street Journal.
Press releases of publicly held companies often disclaim “forward-looking statements” based on future events. They should disclaim statements that are offered with a wink and a nod, like UnitedHealth’s explanation for Witty’s departure.
Questionable statements like that erode a company’s credibility, especially with employees and savvy investors. The better course would have been to say Witty was stepping down to pursue new opportunities.
4. Thrilled and honored? Lip-Bu Tan said he was “honored” when he was named chief executive of microchip maker Intel in a press release on March 12, 2025.
“We are thrilled to welcome” Craig Donohue as CEO of Cboe Global Markets, the chairman of the trading exchange said in a release on May 1, 2025.
Clichés make readers stop reading. After Kroger named Greg Foran CEO on Feb. 9, 2026, he offered a refreshing statement of his feelings: “At this moment in Kroger’s journey, I can honestly say this is the best job on the planet.”
Perhaps he’s been brought down to earth more times than many CEOs. In a 2025 interview, the former CEO of Walmart U.S. described his experience addressing an arena with up to 15,000 employees during Associates Week, where celebrities such as Elton John and Mariah Carey help pump up the crowd.
“You would have a moment like that where you would go, ‘Wow!’” he said with an accent from his native New Zealand.
One speech stood out.
“I came off stage and was heading to the restroom and, you know, a young woman stopped me and said, ‘Gee that was fantastic. It was terrific.’
“And I said to her, ‘Thanks very much.’ And you know, I was on my way to the restroom, and I said to her, ‘What store are you from?’
“And she said, ‘I’m not. I’m Drew Barrymore,’” Foran said to the laugher of the interviewers. “You know, you sort of feel like a bit of dick.”
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