Good morning. Phil Wahba writing from New York. When Cracker Barrel announced last week that its CEO Julie Masino would depart a year after a logo redesign sparked a culture war, many were puzzled by her replacement: a 69-year-old retired CEO.
To be sure, Dave Deno has ample restaurant industry experience. He stepped down as CEO of Outback Steakhouse owner Bloomin’ 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’s attempt to mollify Wall Street with “a steady hand” while it looked for longer-term solutions.
Cracker Barrel is not alone in choosing a former CEO who’d 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’t 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.)
Data supports the idea that boards are prioritizing proven leaders: Russell Reynolds Associates found that 34% of CEOs appointed by S&P 500 companies in the first half of 2026 previously led a public company, up from 22% in the year prior.
Turning to retired CEOs “feels like the easy button to press because conducting a search—if a bench doesn’t exist—is a lot of hard work,” says Shawn Cole, president of executive search firm Cowen Partners.
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’ve departed so far in 2026 had served an average of nine years, up from 6.6 years in the same period in 2025.
As CEO pipelines grow stale, companies are increasingly turning to outsider candidates, a population that includes retirees. Cowen found that 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’ internal benches are “starved” of real CEO contenders.
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 “kicking the can down the road,” Cole says. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
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