\n
To be sure, Dave Deno has ample restaurant industry experience. He stepped down as CEO of Outback Steakhouse owner Bloomin\u2019 Brands in 2024 after a so-so five-year tenure and also had stints at Pizza Hut and Yum Brands. But not everyone was convinced a 69-year-old retiree was the right fit. Some analysts wondered if he could attract the younger clientele Cracker Barrel desperately needs or usher in transformative change. One analyst suggested that his selection was Cracker Barrel\u2019s attempt to mollify Wall Street with \u201ca steady hand\u201d while it looked for longer-term solutions.<\/p>\n
Cracker Barrel is not alone in choosing a former CEO who\u2019d recently hung it up. Verizon and Boeing have tapped retired CEOs to fill their corner offices, naming Dan Schulman and Kelly Ortberg, respectively. (The appeal of former executives isn\u2019t limited to CEOs: incoming Apple chief John Ternus coaxed his trusted former lieutenant, hardware executive Laura Legros, out of retirement to serve on his management team.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Data supports the idea that boards are prioritizing proven leaders: Russell Reynolds Associates found that 34% of CEOs appointed by <\/strong>S&P 500 companies in the first half of 2026 previously led a public company, up from 22% in the year prior.<\/p>\nTurning to retired CEOs \u201cfeels like the easy button to press because conducting a search\u2014if a bench doesn\u2019t exist\u2014is a lot of hard work,\u201d says Shawn Cole, president of executive search firm Cowen Partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That work is arguably getting harder as chief executives stay in the job longer, causing their possible successors to get restless; some are bolting to jobs elsewhere or retiring themselves. An extensive study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the average CEO age increased by 10 years to 61 between 2000 and 2023. Russell Reynolds also found that CEOs who\u2019ve departed so far in 2026 had served an average of 9 years, up from 6.6 years in the same period in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As CEO pipelines grow stale, companies are increasingly turning to outsider candidates, a population that includes retirees. Cowen found 33% of new CEOs at S&P 500 firms were external hires last year, up from 18% in 2024. Cole says the trend indicates that companies\u2019 internal benches are \u201cstarved\u201d of real CEO contenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The onus is on boards to demand more robust leadership development programs. Because while retired CEOs can often get the job done, hiring executives at the tail end of their careers can amount to \u201ckicking the can down the road,\u201d Cole says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\nTop leadership news<\/h3>\n
Novo Nordisk hunts for its next blockbuster drug<\/b><\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk <\/span>briefly overtook<\/span> LVMH as Europe\u2019s most valuable company in 2023 as sales of Ozempic and Wegovy surged, but a trial failure and intensifying U.S. competition have complicated its search for a successor drug. CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen said the company is focused on \u201cbuilding the next growth platform\u201d beyond its GLP-1 franchise.<\/span><\/p>\nConocoPhillips CEO steps down\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Ryan Lance <\/span>will leave<\/span> the ConocoPhillips CEO role in September after 14 years, remaining executive chairman as CFO Andy O\u2019Brien takes over. The transition comes as the oil producer posted its strongest quarterly profit since 2022.<\/span><\/p>\nMeta had a rogue agent too<\/b><\/p>\n
Meta <\/span>confirmed<\/span> one of its models exploited a security flaw during third-party testing after it was inadvertently given internet access, putting it alongside OpenAI and Anthropic in reporting unexpected agent behavior. A Meta spokesperson told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i> the model acted “in a manner similar to previously reported instances with other companies” and said the company is investigating.<\/span><\/p>\nThe markets<\/h3>\n
S&P 500<\/b> futures are up 0.11% this morning. The last session closed down 0.18%. <\/span>The<\/b> STOXX Europe 600<\/b> was up 0.26% in early trading. <\/span>The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100<\/b> was up 0.21% in early trading.<\/span> Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 <\/b>was down 0.12%.<\/span> South Korea\u2019s KOSPI <\/b>was down 0.60%. <\/span>China\u2019s CSI 300 <\/b>was up 0.93%.<\/span> Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng<\/b> was up 0.54%.<\/span> India\u2019s NIFTY 50 <\/b>was down 0.39%. <\/span>Bitcoin<\/b> was at $65K.<\/span><\/p>\nAround the watercooler<\/h3>\n
Asia needs deeper energy markets if it\u2019s going to achieve its AI ambitions<\/span> by Guy Wolf<\/span><\/p>\nOpenAI agents passed secret notes for months leading up to Hugging Face hack<\/span> by Emily Forlini<\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019re \u2018me-maxxing\u2019 so much, we\u2019re saying 30% fewer words a day than we did 20 years ago<\/span> by Catherina Gioino<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018Pure insanity\u2019\u2014Elon Musk details SpaceX\u2019s plan to turn the moon into its newest manufacturing site<\/span> by Amanda Gerut<\/span><\/p>\nSingapore\u2019s IPO reboot sees 3.5x the listings and over $3 billion raised, as reforms bring bourse revenue up 14% via dual listing bridge with Nasdaq<\/span> by Angelica Ang<\/span><\/p>\nCEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Boards #calling #retired #CEOs #succession #pipelines #run #dry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Good morning. Phil Wahba writi… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3584,929,1555,559,3000,3586,3585,65,1583],"class_list":["post-1806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-boards","tag-calling","tag-ceo-daily","tag-ceos","tag-dry","tag-pipelines","tag-retired","tag-run","tag-succession"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n