In talk shows, the so-called "old white man" is sometimes portrayed as a relic. In the executive suites of Dax companies, however, this demographic is far from being endangered. On the contrary, the average age of CEOs of Dax companies is currently 55 years. In 39 out of 40 cases, men lead the companies. Belén Garijo, the CEO of Merck, is currently the only female CEO in Germany's stock exchange premier league. And the gender balance could worsen, as Garijo is already 63 years old. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that Merck will see a succession in the coming years, should the serving CEO not continue unusually long.

Overall, despite all the challenges in 2023, there were only four changes at the helm of a Dax company. MTU CEO Lars Wagner and Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden took over in January. In May, Tobias Meyer succeeded the longtime CEO of Deutsche Post, Frank Appel. And in June, Bill Anderson replaced the unsuccessful Bayer CEO Werner Baumann. In April of this year, Markus Kamieth will take over the reins from Martin Brudermüller at BASF. He prevailed in the internal competition against the female Chief Technology Officer Melanie Maas-Brunner. A new opportunity to break the phalanx of older men arises at Deutsche Börse. The contract of CEO Theodor Weimer expires at the end of 2024. "We have initiated a process to search for a successor," said Chairman of the Supervisory Board Martin Jetter in September. Perhaps the stock exchange will take a cue from its US counterpart. The New York Stock Exchange had been led by Stacey Cunningham, born in 1974, from 2018 to 2022. She was succeeded by Lynn Martin, another female President.

In addition to the one-sided gender distribution, the high average age of Dax CEOs is striking. Excluding the co-founders' dual leadership at Zalando, the average age is almost 56 years – more than three years above the global average according to KPMG. In China, where there are more young companies, the average CEO is more than seven years younger.

While the choice of an experienced corporate leader can be well justified in each individual case, the trend of staying on proven paths during times of transformation is not without risk. German automakers, for example, are led in a less erratic way than their US rival Tesla. Nevertheless, they are also more sluggish when it comes to making quick course corrections.