The wisdom of age.

• Author: Stewart, Heather Dawn
• Position: From the Editor

Welcome to summer! And welcome to our Outstanding Directors issue, which celebrates exceptional board directors whose wealth of experience and steadying hand are invaluable assets to the organizations they serve. The Outstanding Directors awards recognize directors from companies large and small, public and private, as well as nonprofit organizations.

I had the pleasure of interviewing honoree Lane Summerhays, former CEO and current director at WCF Insurance, about his board service for the privately held company. From his unique perspective of having led the company to now providing guidance to the current executive team, Summerhays said one of the biggest concerns for boards is helping companies develop succession plans. He said that many CEOs in our business community are age 55 or older, and a baby boom retirement wave may soon impact Utah companies.

His comments made me curious about C-level demographics in Utah, but I couldn't find any hard data about it. The advisory firm Korn Ferry analyzed the top 1,000 U.S. companies, based on revenue, and found the average CEO age is 58, with an average tenure of eight years. CEO.com examined the Fortune 100 CEOs and found that the average age was 56--slightly down from 59 in 1980. So, as Summerhays noted, CEOs, on average, tend to be in their mid-to-late 50s.

One factor that may be contributing to a decline in average CEO age is the rise of the young tech entrepreneur. CEO.com reported that, "More public company CEOs 40 years old and under lead organizations involved in technology products or services than work in any other...