Wild Leadership

Gen X at Work

The generation running British companies is the generation being let go.

Three stories. Every figure names its source. Two counts are mine. The accounts are first-hand.

One of three

You are the generation running British companies.

  • Your generation started work with secretaries and fax machines, before there was a computer on every desk.
  • In 1997 you were told the career path had gone and you would have to lay your own. You did.
  • Born in 1969? So was the average chief executive of a FTSE 150 company.
  • Your chair is 65 and still thinks of you as the young one.
  • You run the team, the P&L, the site, the firm. Three in four of the people who do are between 35 and 64.
  • Or it is your name on the company. Four in five of the people who control a substantial British firm are over fifty.
3 in 4of managers and directors in England and Wales are 35 to 64
1969birth year of the average FTSE 150 chief executive
65average age of their chair
60My countmedian age of the person controlling a substantial British company
Age 16: 263Age 17: 826Age 18: 2,837Age 19: 8,136Age 20: 12,788Age 21: 17,352Age 22: 22,146Age 23: 27,192Age 24: 32,470Age 25: 39,298Age 26: 45,907Age 27: 53,208Age 28: 59,962Age 29: 66,720Age 30: 73,850Age 31: 79,677Age 32: 88,460Age 33: 96,249Age 34: 105,931Age 35: 112,682Age 36: 123,075Age 37: 127,711Age 38: 134,703Age 39: 138,047Age 40: 141,010Age 41: 143,483Age 42: 144,815Age 43: 146,351Age 44: 148,967Age 45: 149,827Age 46: 153,689Age 47: 148,023Age 48: 141,014Age 49: 132,330Age 50: 129,455Age 51: 126,233Age 52: 127,323Age 53: 124,804Age 54: 126,496Age 55: 127,604Age 56: 124,086Age 57: 119,473Age 58: 117,518Age 59: 112,586Age 60: 108,065Age 61: 103,691Age 62: 96,830Age 63: 90,643Age 64: 82,134Age 65: 73,964Age 66: 66,894Age 67: 56,912Age 68: 51,620Age 69: 45,569Age 70: 39,759Age 71: 34,636Age 72: 30,261Age 73: 26,877Age 74: 23,816Age 75: 20,987Age 76: 19,411Age 77: 18,058Age 78: 16,237Age 79: 15,798Age 80: 13,095Age 81: 9,768Age 82: 9,053Age 83: 7,051Age 84: 5,669Age 85: 3,918Age 86: 3,320Age 87: 2,896Age 88: 2,350Age 89: 1,770Age 90: 1,464Age 91: 1,073Age 92: 790Age 93: 589Age 94: 527Age 95: 320Age 96: 257Age 97: 171Age 98: 102Age 99: 71Age 100: 56median 47born 1965 to 19802030405060708090100
My countCompanies House publishes, free, the month and year of birth of every person who controls a British company. On 27 September 2026 I took the whole register and counted: 5,241,049 controlling positions, one bar per year of age. The gold bars are your generation. Nobody had published this before. Method, caveats and the data files
Crazy Pavingthe report, twenty-one screensThe Years That Made Usenter your birth year and see those years at your ageWho controls British businessmy own count, with the method and the data

The figures

All 8 figures on this story →

Two of three

Nobody tells you what the top is really like.

  • You got the top job at 52, nine years after you joined. Everything is harder than it should be.
  • Nobody ever told you about The Apex. The place where you have two jobs: deliver growth, defend your position.
  • You drove home after the results and there was nobody you could tell how close it was.
  • You have stopped telling anyone, at work or at home, how it is really going.
  • The announcement said you resigned. It was not a resignation.
  • If you own the place rather than run it, it ends at about the same time. The median owner of a substantial British company lets go at 57.
52in
59out
7 yrsin the chair
7%got another CEO job
57My countmedian age of the owner when a substantial British company changes hands
On the Recordwhat you expected, and what happened. I went firstField Noteswhat the top is like, one scene at a timeWhen owners let gomy own count, by sector, against your age

The figures

All 6 figures on this story →

Three of three

Losing your job is not the unusual part. Getting back in is.

  • The first Monday with no meetings.
  • You are 54 and twelve years from a pension.
  • The recruiter said overqualified and meant something else.
  • One man told the Guardian this month: 598 applications, eight interviews.
2.9mbetween fifty and pension age, neither working nor retired
9.5%less, for those who got back
Nore-employment figures in the government’s own table
On the Recordwhat you expected, and what happened. I went firstThe Years That Made Usthe entries on losing work and getting back, with sources

The figures

All 14 figures on this story →

Behind the stories

Crazy PavingThe report. Twenty-one screens on what was done to this generation on the way in, and what is being done to it now.Read the report The Years That Made UsHow the world we grew up in shaped what we expected from work. See those years at your age.Enter your birth year On the RecordWhat did you think working life would be like when you started? What happened? And what do you want from it now? First names only. I went first.Read them. Add yours.
The newsroom

Every figure on this page and the ones that follow, newest first, each naming its source, base and period. Lift what you need.

Field Notes

What I make of it, one scene at a time, on Substack.

Why I built this

Magnus Wood

Magnus Wood.

I was born on the edge of Generation X. Three times at the top of a business. Left three times, not always when I chose. If you’re trying to hold your ground or work out what comes after, I’ve had to find my way through both.

I built this because I couldn’t find one place that brought together the stories and the evidence of working life in our fifties and sixties.

How the work is built

I am not a researcher and this is not a study. It is a record, built from published sources with the sources attached, so you can check it or disagree with it. Where two sources conflict, the entry names both and says which one it uses. Two counts are my own, from the whole Companies House register, each marked My count with its method, caveats and data. If something is wrong, tell me and it gets changed with the change noted.

Writing about this? The page for journalists has the figures with their sources, the images, and how to reach me.

Share your story

What did you think working life would be like when you started? What happened? And what do you want from it now?

You might still be leading a business, looking for work, or finding a different way to make a living. You don’t need to have worked it all out.

Go on the recordFirst names only. Nothing you share will be published without your permission.

Or write to me at magnus@wildleadership.co.

Wild Leadership, Sevenoaks, Kent. UK time.