Study indicates rise in the number of young CEOs

In an interesting study on “Global CEOs,” Zinnov found that the average age of CEOs who founded companies after 2000 is 36 years, 3 years lesser than CEOs who founded companies before 2000. In fact two of the five youngest G500 CEOs (Facebook and Google) founded their companies in their twenties.

The average age of non-founder CEOs in companies founded before and after 2000 was 56 and 52 years respectively. Organisations founded after 2000 clearly show a greater inclination to hire younger CEOs who bring a newer perspective to the business.
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The study indicates an increase in the number of young CEOs across the global 500 R&D spenders.

“There is also a clear distinction between the way digital native and digital immigrant companies appoint their CEOs,” the study claimed.
“The CEOs of digital native companies are on an average 9 years younger than digital immigrant companies. None of the digital native CEOs are over 60 years of age. On the other hand, amongst digital immigrants, the average age of CEOs is 54, and 21 percent of the CEOs are older than 60 years. In fact, no CEO of a digital immigrant company is less than 30 years, while amongst digital natives, 8 percent of the CEOs fall under this age-bracket.”

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Similar to the average age of CEOs, the average age of appointment of CEOs is lower by four years in companies established after 2000 than those established before 2000. The average age of CEOs currently at the helm of G500 companies is between 50 and 60 years.

Four of the 5 youngest CEOs are based out of Bay Area, USA. Of these, three belong to digital native companies. Only three amongst all currently serving CEOs are over 80 years of age, and they belong to Asia - two from Japan and one from Taiwan.

Only 3 percent of the Global 500 CEOs are women. However, organisations are taking focussed efforts to hire women leaders and this is reflected in the appointment of 10 women CEOs in the last three years.

G500 companies are increasingly instating internal leaders who understand the organisation’s DNA and business and are still able to bring a newer perspective as CEOs. Companies that do hire CEO’s from outside the organisation prefer individuals who have a proven track record of running a company or business unit. EMEA based companies have the highest ratio of externally hired CEOs, while Japan based companies have the highest ratio of internally hired CEOs.

About 45 percent of global 500 CEOs have an engineering background and close to 62 percent of the CEOs have a postgraduate degree which includes MBA, PHDs or Masters. North America continues to be the preferred destination for undergraduate and post graduate education of the Global 500 CEOs.