executives in their jobs. Boeing last year raised its mandatory retirement age to 70 to keep CEO Dave Calhoun for another five years.

Older executives are sticking around longer, with the average age of an outgoing chief executive reaching 64 in 2021, up from 61 in 2020, according to research from SpencerStuart, which tracks data on CEO transitions. “Mandatory retirement policies for CEOs are a thing of the past,” said Matteo Tonello, managing director of environmental, social and governance research at The Conference Board, a think tank focused on corporate management.

The Conference Board stopped tracking the use of such measures in 2017, Tonello said. By then, the few companies that had such policies in place “were not enforcing it to avoid being accused of age discrimination or avoid finding themselves in a situation where they’d have to force out a well-performing CEO or to force out a CEO at an inconvenient time and without a solid succession plan.”

Cornell, who is 63, has led Target since 2014, having previously worked for Walmart and PepsiCo. The company has added nearly $40 billion in annual revenue since Cornell joined, the executive said in a statement Wednesday. “It was important to us as a board to assure our stakeholders that Brian intends to stay in his role beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, Monica Lozano, lead independent director of Target’s board of directors, said in a statement. “We enthusiastically support his commitment and his continued leadership, especially considering his track record and the company’s strong financial performance during his tenure.”