Recruitment of under-40 directors is up, but is age diversity a sure bet for tackling the next generation of boardroom issues?
Peter Pan notwithstanding, a fixation on youth is generally considered unhealthy in most contexts. In boardrooms, a dearth of age diversity is increasingly viewed as a sign of being out of step with the times. Such myopia may result in an inability to see what disruptions lie beyond the horizon or to anticipate changes in consumer behavior. For ex- ample, much has been made about how the millennial generation— which encompasses people born between 1981 and 1996, according to Pew Research—is reshaping business thanks to their digital savvy and spending and work habits that favor socially conscious organiza- tions. Insights into this segment are important as millennials stand to become the most populous generation in the United States this year. According to the latest projections by the US Census Bureau, millennials are expected to number 73 million versus 72 million baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Generation X, which spans from 1965 to 1980, isn’t expected to outnumber the baby boomer population until 2028.

Our partner NACD utilized data from our CompanyIQ^® corporate governance database to analyze age diversity among Russell 3000 directors.