{"id":8304,"date":"2026-09-07T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T11:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8304"},"modified":"2026-09-07T11:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T11:07:02","slug":"baby-boomer-executives-arent-leaving-the-c-suites-and-thats-setting-up-a-crisis-for-corporate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8304","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boomer executives aren\u2019t leaving the C-suites \u2013 and that’s setting up a crisis for corporate America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Baby Boomer executives continue to win and keep top jobs in the C-suites \u2013 and it\u2019s setting up a possible succession crisis across corporate America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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From Boeing to Verizon to Cracker Barrel, boards at major firms have been hiring\u00a0older and even previously retired chief executives to guide them out of corporate messes. As of June, 42% of sitting CEOs were 60 or older \u2014 an \u201celevated\u201d level versus historical averages, according to research by Cowen Partners that looked at SEC proxy filings across an S&P 500 sample.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a major chunk of white-collar Boomers are grappling with what experts call an \u201cidentity crisis\u201d \u2014 reluctant to leave for a traditional retirement. That, along with a lack of timely succession planning, could spark chaos in the workplace in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when someone passes away and there is zero will and you don\u2019t know where anything is and now everyone is left to pick up the pieces? That is exactly what is happening across corporate America right now,\u201d according to Shawn Cole, president and co-founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search.<\/p>\n

For years, economists forecasted a \u201cSilver Tsunami\u201d \u2014 the prediction that Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 will age out of the workforce in a great wave. But that\u2019s not happening, as the 12-month average labor force participation rate for those 65 and over hit 19.2% \u2013 up from the 10% range in the 1980s and around 12% at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive outplacement firm, notes that people are living longer and \u201cjust in a different place in their 60s and 70s than they used to be,\u201d so the idea of retiring at 65 seems like an arbitrary number.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also a sense that it\u2019s not healthy to stop working, people feel they need that in their lives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cole puts it more bluntly: \u201cThere\u2019s also a fear that if I stop moving, I might die \u2026 because they all know someone who retired and then all of a sudden their body started falling apart and they quickly deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

At more than a third of the S&P 500 firms sampled by Cowen, the CEO and chief financial officer \u2013 the top two seats of a company \u2013 were sitting in the retirement window at the same time. Meanwhile, external CEO hires at S&P 500 firms nearly doubled in the past year, and median CEO pay jumped 9.5% to $25.6 million.<\/p>\n

When Boomers finally leave these cushy jobs, Generation X \u2013 those born between 1965 and 1980 \u2013 could get passed over altogether as they near retirement age themselves. In theory, it\u2019s an opportunity for Gen Y, better known as millennials, to quickly move up the food chain \u2013 but there are risks there too, experts said.<\/p>\n

Companies could suffer as relatively inexperienced millennials face a \u201ctrial by fire,\u201d putting their professional reputations on the line to enter a C-suite spot for which they might not be prepared, per the Cowen research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people were never allowed in the rooms and over the course of one or two years it\u2019s gonna be a rapid succession and then they\u2019re gonna be given the keys. Who thinks that\u2019s a good idea?\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n

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The shift may have started during the Great Recession, when companies kept proven Boomers in their seats to steer them out of a crisis instead of promoting Gen Xers. That threw off the succession timeline, since it takes 15 to 20 years of experience to build an executive ready to take over the CEO seat, according to Cowen.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, employer training dollars are often spent on workers who are already in leadership positions \u2014 an example of how companies are overlooking development opportunities that will hurt them later, said Maria Flynn, CEO of nonprofit Jobs for the Future.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t necessarily help that \u201cReverse mentoring\u201d also has picked up, where younger workers are paired with older employees on their teams to keep them up-to-date on newer technologies and share fresh perspectives, according to Flynn.<\/p>\n

Many Boomers simply need the wages, facing stubbornly high inflation and rising gas prices, according to Flynn. But in other cases, white-collar workers simply don\u2019t want to let go.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor folks who may not want to retire, I think a big piece of it is the strong connection between their identity and their job,\u201d Flynn said. \u201cYounger generations may not see that connection as tightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen Z \u2013 those born between 1997 and 2012 \u2013 have started contributing to their workplace retirement plans earlier than ever and believe the ideal retirement age is 59, according to a Manulife John Hancock Retirement report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Challenger said he\u2019s noticed more Boomers looking for a \u201csecond chapter\u201d instead of retiring.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere are more options with job sharing, part-time work, consulting work, entrepreneurial work, contingent work. There was, at one point, a pretty solid line: You worked full-time permanent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Gen X is already a far smaller generation with about 65 million people, trailing Baby Boomers\u2019 peak population and that of both Gen Z and the largest cohort, millennials.<\/p>\n

Cole \u2013 a Gen Xer \u2013 said one of his millennial friends who works at BNSF Railway recently got a promotion because a Baby Boomer four levels above him suddenly retired. The friend was given three days\u2019 notice to move his family to Texas for the new role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an employer, you don\u2019t want to wait until the last minute for succession planning and a lot of times folks do wait until it becomes an emergency,\u201d Flynn told The Post.<\/p>\n

Read more Hundreds ride 343 miles from Boston to Ground Zero to honor FDNY 9\/11 heroes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major chunk of white-collar Boomers are grappling with what experts call an \u201cidentity crisis\u201d — reluctant to leave their executive and middle-management positions for a traditional retirement, a move that could spark workplace chaos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nBaby Boomer executives aren\u2019t leaving the C-suites \u2013 and that's setting up a crisis for corporate America - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8304\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baby Boomer executives aren\u2019t leaving the C-suites \u2013 and that's setting up a crisis for corporate America - 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