FTSE firms hanker experience

The number of FTSE 100 bosses approaching retirement age has doubled in the past 20 years, new research has indicated.

Retirement specialist Responsible Life said a fifth of Britain’s biggest businesses could lose their chief executives to retirement in the next five years as they approach pension age.

The firm’s analysis suggests that the number of CEOS in their 60s has doubled in 20 years from 8.8 per cent in 1998 to 18.6 per cent this year.

The research shows that of the 19 chief execs in the FTSE 100 index aged 60 and over, 16 of them were hired after the 2007/08 global financial crash. Their age means that almost a fifth of FTSE 100 bosses may soon be looking to retirement.

Nicandro Durante, the 62-year-old in charge of British American Tobacco, has already announced he will retire in April next year.

Onaverage,2018’schiefexecutives have been in post for 5.1 years and are aged 54.3. Only six women hold the top job in the FTSE 100 – 21 years after the first female CEO was hired.

Steve Wilkie, managing director of Responsible Life, said: “Age alone doesn’t automatically qualify a chief executive to be a better leader but boards clearly value these industry titans’ experience in tough times. Since the financial crash, the research shows companies have been taking stock and hiring those with more battle scars in greater numbers. Experience and, with it, a nose for how to steer our biggest companies through choppy waters, is prized now more than ever.

“However, there could be a high turnover at the top in a few years as those same older and experienced bosses start looking towards their retirements.

“When they do go, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to see their jobs pass to talented women to correct the gender imbalance. The rate of progres in this area over the past 20 years can, at best, be said to be glacial.”