Why the CROs of today could be the CEOs of tomorrow

Corporate America is embracing executive alignment the way it once lionized efficiency and ruthlessness. Stepping up to the plate is the newly minted C-suite superstar, the chief revenue officer.

A 2023 LinkedIn report identified the CRO as the fastest-growing job title in the US. A McKinsey study from the same year found that Fortune 100 companies with an established CRO, or adjacent role, achieve 1.8 times higher revenue growth.

The majority of S&P 500 CEOs come from four positions, according to a 2021 Spencer Stuart study: COO, CFO, divisional CEOs, and elsewhere outside the C-suite. But are times changing?

Revenue Brew spoke with two former CROs who are now CEOs and one C-suite construction expert on why the role is starting to more commonly pave a path to the top of the corporate heap.

Growth gurus

Before becoming the CEO at sales enablement firm Walnut.io, Eric Anderson was a CRO at tech solution companies ReturnPath, Spredfast, and Optimizely. Now, as he sits in the driver’s seat for the first time, Anderson is adamant that his CRO experience is invaluable to his day-to-day success.

He said today’s CRO role necessitates that executives operate at the intersection of strategy, execution, and growth—something that is important as a CEO. As Walnut starts a new sales-led motion, this is becoming even more important.

“Unlike many traditional CEOs, CROs don’t just set the strategy; they live it daily, partnering across functions to turn vision into measurable impact,” Anderson told Revenue Brew via email.

Moreover, he argued that CROs must be able to unify teams around a shared growth mindset and agenda. This includes spurring alignment between sets of teams like sales, marketing, customer success, product, and finance.

“In my time as CRO, I spent as much time with product and customer success as I did with sales and marketing to ensure the entire customer journey was optimized for value creation and realization. That experience has proven invaluable as a CEO of Walnut,” Anderson said.

“CROs bring a CEO-ready mindset,” according to Anderson, in which “accountability, collaboration, and adaptability” are core tenets.

CROs as co-CEOs

One company that has used an executive with CRO experience in a unique way is cloud inventory company Katana. Along with one of the company’s co-founders Kristjan Vilosius, former CRO Ben Hussey was appointed co-CEO in 2024. Hussey says CROs can be the right tool for the CEO job, depending on the needs of the business and the problem you’re trying to solve.

“The company’s growing. If you’re looking to get a connection with the product of the value prop, I think CROs are a good fit,” he said.

Katana is VC-backed, and funding rounds can often be long and arduous. The co-CEO model has allowed Katana to spread responsibilities among Hussey and Vilosius.

“We were in a luxurious position where we could actually have [Vilosius] focus on the funding side of things, the financing side of things, and the longer-term strategy for us, the three, five-year horizon, whereas I then took on the more day-to-day of the leadership of the business,” Hussey said. Hussey highlighted that the changing demands of the CRO mean that the position requires a more complete view of the organization.

“You have to have the right customer acquisition costs, [lifetime value], [cash against documents], which means you also need someone who understands those things. That’s the difference between a sales leader and a revenue leader today,” Hussey told Revenue Brew.

Expert insight: C-suite composition

Joy Taylor is managing director at alliant Consulting and has over 15 years of management consulting experience. She believes CROs are good CEO candidates, especially in today’s business environment.

“They have control over their data. They know what they want. The metrics of success and the metrics of failure are pretty consistent from a chief revenue officer’s lens,” Taylor said.

One market force that she says will make CROs great candidates is AI, as CROs looking for a commercial edge are often the first executives to master the technology in their organization. Taylor says CROs are usually one of the executives in the company that keep the cleanest data, an increasing emphasis for companies dedicating themselves to using data effectively.

“There’s going to be lessons to be learned. The sooner you get through that journey, the sooner you’re going to get to the result,” she said.