China has always attached great importance to the introduction of returnees. In order to encourage and attract returnees to work back home, the central and regional governments have issued various preferential policies. Therefore, based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2021, we study the impact of CEOs with foreign experience on firms’export. The results show that hiring CEOs with foreign experience significantly enhances firms’export performance. Moreover, the results are robust to the endogenous CEO selection using instrument variable method and propensity score matching method. We also find that the positive relation between CEOs’foreign experience and firms’export performance is more pronounced when CEOs have long-term foreign work experience. Furthermore, the impact of foreign experience on firms’export performance varies with CEOs’gender. Also, this type of benefit for appointing CEOs with foreign experience is only significant when firms located in coastal areas, and when firms are in areas featuring a better legal environment or receiving intensive foreign direct investment. Hence, this study offers policy implication by suggesting hiring a CEO with foreign experience is an efficient way to improve firms’export performance.