June 20, 2014: “According to the latest deep research conducted by theCDO Club, the number of Chief Digital Officers in 2013 doubled again in one year–just as it has been doing since 2005–to a total of 500. And the CDO Club is conservatively projecting that number to double again, to some 1,000 Chief Digital Officers by the end of 2014. So what is responsible for the exponential growth of this role?”

May 15, 2014: “Seven chief digital officers moved up the career ladder to CEO in 2013, according to the CDO Club’s 2014 Talent Map, but another data point may help explain why CDOs are experiencing a quick rise to the top: Sixty percent of CDOs in the advertising sector previously held the title of CEO, president, general manager, or managing director.”

“That’s a mindboggling figure,” CDO Club Founder and Curator David Mathison said at a recent CDO Summit. “These are people who obviously have general management skills, they’ve run companies before, and it’s very clear that the time is right for these people to step up.”