[kzhahou]

I wish more stories about executive appointments were promotions instead of just hiring existing execs. I have zero insight on the person referenced in this article, but my professional experience has been full of execs who are not really exceptional and yet will stay in those high-up roles for life, while the lower ranks are full of talent waiting years for some small career advancement.

[spicyj]

It's harder to make a news story out of "director promoted to VP" than it is out for "Google VP leaves for Facebook". I think at all of these companies, a large portion of the executive team was promoted from within and has been with the company for many years.

[spyspy]

And that snubbed director is going to leave to be VP of another company and the cycle starts all over again.

[spicyj]

My point was that promotions do happen frequently, you just don't hear about most of them.

[kzhahou]

You're right that there's gonna be selection bias if one just judges by press. But I've seen this internally many times as well.

[SirensOfTitan]

Executive appointments have always been nepotistic: it's a club that rewards who you know more than what you can accomplish (that's not to say the two are mutually exclusive, however).

[Animats]

Depends on the company. Heavy industry tends to promote in-house.