The greying corner office

The average CEO age is up a decade from 2000. Will younger generations miss out on the top role?

AT LEAST TWO things were notable about the newly-announced CEO of Apple, John Ternus, who will replace Tim Cook in September. The first is that not many people had heard of him, having been a career employee within Apple who rose up the ranks; the second was that he isn’t all that old.

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The average CEO among American companies is now 61 years old — up a decade since 2000 — and executives are reaching the top job later, with the average appointment age rising to 55, compared to 48 in 2000.

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The National Bureau of Economic Research has studied this phenomenon and concluded in a recent working paper that it comes down largely to the type of skills and experience that land you in the corner office these days. There is, they suggest, “rising demand for generalist human capital,” which “leads firms to trade off peak ability for accumulated experience.” Firms, they wrote, “place greater weight on diversified managerial experience as operating environments have become increasingly uncertain and complex.”

The pace of this aging trend might be accelerating. Similar research from Revelio Labs from 2024 found that the average age of a CEO rose by three years between 2018 and 2024. “Companies are favouring older, more experienced leaders over younger ones,” its analysis concluded. “The shift might reflect a preference for the stability and extensive knowledge that seasoned leaders bring to the complex and rapidly evolving business landscape.”

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One might interpret this as a rational response to uncertainty. A generalist with a long resume and a ton of experience might be seen as a safer pick than a younger choice. Under that interpretation, it might be a good decade to be an older executive, as “the premium will only increase,” according to Farzad Saidi, an author on the NBER report, who spoke to Axios.

The other interpretation some might have is this: boomers stay winning. Tempting, and perhaps cathartic, but Axios warns the interpretation might gloss over the fact that ageism is alive and well. “For many regular workers, ageism is a drag that eventually knocks them out of the workforce or keeps them from climbing the ladder,” they wrote, “but a select group of the 55-plus crowd is finding its way to the top.” Kieran Delamont