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Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Careers data assemble a comprehensive picture of the tenure of CEOs in large UK companies by examining all companies who appeared in the FTSE350 between 1992 and 2006 and examining the careers of the CEOs of those companies in all cases where a career terminated in one of those years. This resulted in a list of well over 1,000 careers (N=1,817). In assembling the CEO Careers Data, the first task was to identify the list of companies to be considered. This was done by taking all companies listed as members of the FTSE350 as of December in each year from 1992 through 2006. Once a company entered the project definition of FTSE350, it continued to be included in the tracked sample even though it subsequently dropped out of the FTSE350 (in an effort to avoid survivor bias). For each of these companies the Annual Report was used as the principal source of information regarding the tenure of the CEO from the appointment date through to the resignation date (and this was defined as the time in the job as CEO, as distinct from time in the office of director, although these are nearly always coincident). Annual reports for recent years could (in surviving companies) be obtained from each company's website, but in a large number of instances it was necessary to revert to 'Thomson OneBanker' and 'OSIRIS' to obtain these documents. For other cases (usually more distant years) the Companies House Direct facility was used, which allowed annual reports to be downloaded. These sources allowed the collection of data on the start and end date of the tenure of all CEOs observed to complete a period as CEO in any of the sample of companies during the selected years. This involved following the CEO back to the first year in office. Further information may be found on the ESRC Paying for performance: Realized pay and performance in CEO careers; an examination of outcomes...