A recent study from advisory firm Korn Ferry found CIOs are the youngest members of the C-suite.
At the end of 2016, Korn Ferry's analytics arm, the Korn Ferry Institute, analyzed the top 1,000 U.S. companies based on revenue. It examined the age and tenure of those holding C-suite roles, including CIOs, CEOs, CFOs, chief marketing officers and chief human resources officers. The Korn Ferry Institute also broke down the C-suite members by eight industries: consumer, energy, financial services, industrials, life sciences, professional services and technology.
Here are six findings from Korn Ferry's analysis.
1. CIOs are the youngest in the C-suite. The average CIO is approximately 51 years old. The youngest CIOs by industry averaged 47 years old (consumer), while the oldest were 54 (industrials). CIOs also have a relatively short average tenure of 4.3 years.
2. CEOs are the oldest and longest-tenured members of the C-suite. Among all industries, the average CEO age is 58. The oldest average CEO is 60 (financial services), while the youngest is 55 (technology). The average tenure among all CEOs is eight years.
3. CFOs are the next longest-tenured leaders. CFOs came in behind CEOs as far as tenure is concerned. They averaged 5.1 years in their positions. CFOs in the study were an average of 53 years old.
4. Chief marketing officers had the shortest average tenure. On average, the tenure of chief marketing officers is 4.1 years. The lengthiest chief marketing officer tenure is 5.1 years (financial services), compared to the shortest tenure of 3.1 years (life sciences). The average age of chief marketing officers is 52.
5. Chief human resources officers were the oldest C-suite leaders behind CEOs. Although CEOs were the oldest, chief human resources officers were the second oldest at an average age of 55. Tenure-wise, the average for chief human resources is five years.
6. The average age of all C-suite leaders analyzed is 54. The average tenure is 5.3 years.