CEO Portrait 2024 – Age Profile

Curious about the typical Indian CEOs age? Our extensive research of 100 companies across 20 sectors uncovers intriguing trends and insights about the age dynamics of Indian CEOs.

We set out to understand the profile of a typical Indian CEO and took 100 companies across 20 chosen sectors, to map the CEO and their direct reports. Born out of this extensive research is the CEO Landscape 2024. This is the first of 9 insights on a typical Indian CEO and, deals with the age factor.

๐—” ๐˜๐˜†๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—–๐—˜๐—ข ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿณ๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฑ โ€“ 57.3y if you want to be precise. And, as would be expected, 53% of the CEOs fall in the 51-60 age bracket. What is perhaps surprising is that the next big bucket is 61+ bucket (30.2%) rather than the 41-50y bucket, which is only 13.2%.

At least in the media, much has been made out of young people becoming CEOs in the recent past. However, the data points the other way. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿฑ+ ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฑ๐˜€.

And, this makes tremendous sense. ๐—” ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜† ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฑ% ๐—–๐—”๐—š๐—ฅ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ท๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐Ÿด ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜€ โ€“ a company that was Rs 3000c in turnover would have touched Rs 10,000c and a company that started with Rs 10,000c would be at Rs 30,000c. Managing this kind of growth as well as the sizes reached, requires experience and maturity.

Even anecdotally, this resonates well โ€“ as someone helping clients hire a CEO, except where the Promoter is young and thus prefers someone younger, in most other cases, the clients tend to value the right experience over just age as a decision factor.

๐—ก๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฒ: The “CEO Landscape 2024” series is based on analysis of 100 Indian companies across 20 sectors covering both manufacturing and services. Analysis is based on very detailed analysis of CEO, CFO and the entire CXO team, covering nearly 1100 leaders.

Next up “๐—š๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐——๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—”๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—–๐—˜๐—ข๐˜€”.

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Anu graduated from DU and subsequently completed her full-time MBA from IMI. Post her MBA, she worked in sales in the BFSI space, with ICICI Lombard, Principal Asset Management, DSP Blackrock and Edelweiss, across bancassurance, and institutional sales. Later, she worked in the start-up space, while pursuing and completing the Master's in Business Law from National Law School. At Resource Bridge, Anu is a Sr Associate in the CEO Practice and has worked closely with Ram on key mandates.


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Ram is currently the Leader for the CEO Practice and also the Managing Partner of the firm. Ram is an Engineer-turned (BE Mechanical, MS Industrial) MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and brings with him 7 years in corporate, 14 years in top-tier consulting and 10 years in executive search. He was last the leader for Life-sciences at Monitor Group and prior to that, headed IMS Consulting and AT Kearney, starting his career with Ashok Leyland. Brings extensive experience in automotive and healthcare/life-sciences space.


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Dhanlaxmi is a CA and ICWA from Mumbai, and brings with her extensive experience as a practicing chartered accountant, serving clients across industries. Alongside, she also served as a visiting faculty in several institutions. At Resource Bridge, Dhana is an Consultant in the CFO Practice, where she has worked with Saroja on several of the key CFO mandates.


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Saroja is a merit-ranking ICWA and is the Lead for the CFO Practice. Coming from an industrial family, she initally worked in the family business focused on automotive forgings. Later, she set up Resource Bridge along with Ram and grew it from infancy. Just over the last few years, she has led 40+ CFO engagements for a variety of clients, and has one of the best networks within the CFO Community, not only in India but outside too. She brings extensive experience in Retail, FMCG and Manufacturing sector.


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Rachana is an MBA with prior work experience at Reliance Industries for 8 years. In her last role at Reliance, Rachana was the Product Manager for theย  $55M Benzene and Xylene portfolio, with responsibility over sales, commercial and client management. Later she was at Sizer Metals, a base metal trading firm, working on hedging, supply chain and account management. At Resource Bridge, she is a Sr Associate in the CFO Practice and has worked with Saroja, the CFO Practice Lead, in delivering key mandates.


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Mona leads the BD & New Client Engagement function at Resource Bridge and is responsible for all client development activities for the firm. She comes from a marketing and brand promotions background, having worked in the marketing function at Matsushita. Mona has done her full-time MBA.


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