Among the ceo's the average age is 60.9 years, few young people and women

In the command posts of large listed companies, Italy seems to be neither a country for young people nor for women. If there are two identity traits of Italian CEOs, the first is age, which is high, and the second is gender, which is male. In the sense that if we take the Ftse Mib 40 with an average age of 60.9, our ceo's are the oldest in Europe. There is, however, a country that does worse than us, but it is overseas, namely the United States, where the average age of the Fortune 100 is 61.2 years. The greatest criticality, however, for Italy is gender. If we take the 40 companies of the Ftse Mib, the only chief executive officer is Giuseppina Di Foggia, at the head of Terna from 2023.

In the race to the top of companies, there are two hurdles to overcome at the starting blocks. The long permanence in the roles of those who hold them and the long apprenticeship. In Italy, on average, those who become CEOs are appointed at the age of 54.5 and remain in office for at least 6.4 years. Just 13% are appointed before the age of 45. Younger managers are Belgium, where the average age at which the role is assigned is 48.6 years, France and Denmark, 49.4 years, Portugal, 49.5, and Ireland, which on average assigns the role at 48.5 years and almost in one case out of three to those under 45. Who says so? The annual report 'Route To The Top', this year's annual survey of over 1,200 ceo's in 27 stock markets by Heidrick & Struggles, the headhunting multinational that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has a turnover of over a billion dollars globally, of which just under a third in Europe. In Italy it has two offices, in Rome and Milan, which are under the wing of Niccolò Calabresi, managing partner Southern Europe of Heidrick & Struggles. The Italian data uncovers two orders of problems: "The first concerns the length of time spent in the role, which hinders generational turnover, leaving no room for the entry of new talented figures," says Calabresi. "The second, on the other hand, is the presence of women in top positions, which is completely at a standstill.

In leadership, therefore, the generational issue and the gender issue are intertwined. In this second case, Calabresi adds that 'the pipeline towards female leadership is also blocked because of the few candidates. It is as if women are afraid of not being up to certain positions and, as a result, they only apply when they meet 100% of the requirements compared to men who apply even if they are 60% qualified. These conditions severely limit the search for new innovative strategies and contamination, two factors that have always made companies better performers from many points of view'. In major listed companies, the role of women in decision-making continues to remain marginal, despite the Gulf-Moscow Law. In Europe, they do better than us, but still in line with last year's results: France, Finland and Denmark, where the percentage of women CEOs ranges between 8 and 13% compared to our 3%. While globally, although the average does not exceed 8%, the countries with the highest number of female administrators are: Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, but even here the percentage does not go beyond 20%.

In terms of education among Italian CEOs there is the lowest proportion, 38%, of those with advanced academic qualifications, such as a PhD. The Italian figure is almost half of the European average (70%) and a long way from France's 77%, Germany's 74%, but also Spain's 60% and Portugal's 63%, not to mention Finland's 96%. Instead, 20% have an Mba, half of Spain's 40% and even less than Portugal's 53%. However, this share is not so far from the European average of 29% and is in line with Germany's 20% and France's 26%.

To the dilemma of whether it rewards more to jump from one club to another to make one's career, the answer seems to be ni. To reach the top, the path of many has been within companies. In Italy, 55% of ceo's come from an internal path, 77% in France where this percentage is higher, 65% in Germany. The European average is 62%. 88% have already had experience in the C-suite, more than half (53%) as ceo.