It is no surprise that Workday (WDAY) made a CEO change yesterday as former CEO Carl M. Eschenbach scored near the bottom of our various metrics:
Carl M. Eschenbach — Workday (WDAY)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| TSR During Tenure | -44.6% |
| AlphaScore | 11.8 |
| RevCAGRScore | 85.7 |
| CompScore | F |
| CEORaterScore | 39.5 |
Eschenbach's CEORaterScore of 39.5 placed him in the Bottom Quartile of all S&P 500 CEOs. His AlphaScore of just 11.8 reflected a tenure-long Total Shareholder Return of -44.6%—deeply negative alpha versus the benchmark. Meanwhile, a CompScore of F indicated his compensation was significantly out of line with the returns delivered to shareholders.
The one bright spot: a RevCAGRScore of 85.7, indicating Workday continued to post solid revenue growth under his leadership. But strong revenue alone was not enough to offset the shareholder value destruction and compensation inefficiency captured by AlphaScore and CompScore.
CEORater's weighted composite formula—50% AlphaScore, 30% CompScore, and 20% RevenueCAGRScore—is in part designed to flag exactly these situations: CEOs whose overall profile suggests elevated risk of a leadership change, even when certain individual metrics look healthy.
On February 9, 2026, Workday announced that Eschenbach was stepping down as CEO effective immediately, with co-founder Aneel Bhusri returning to the role. The data told the story first.
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