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“Retirement, as we know it, is dead,” says Bradley Schurman, author of the book The Super Age and founder of Human Change, a demographic strategy and inclusive design firm.
“The math has changed," Schurman said. "Corporate pensions have all but vanished, savings are low, and there is little coming in the way of Social Security. This is pushing more people to work longer or search for work post-traditional retirement years.”
With such sweeping changes occurring in and outside the workplace, Schurman believes now could be an opportune time to usher in a new C-suite member onto the executive block: the chief longevity officer (CLO).
“Having a CLO, or someone who understands demographic and longevity shifts, is essential today since more people are living and working longer than ever before,” he said.
The CLO designation is still in its nascent stage. Although it doesn’t yet feature in any Fortune 500 company, it’s been adopted by a handful of biotech startups, VC firms, and companies in the hospitality sector — most notably The Estate, a luxury hotel co-founded by self-help guru, Tony Robbins.
But variations of the executive role can be found in existing C-suite positions, such as the chief human resources officer, chief strategy officer, and chief wellness officer.
With working lives becoming less of a straight line and more of a zig-zag, Schurman envisions the CLO rejecting the traditional education-work-retirement model in favor of a more flexible multi-decade, multi-stage professional life.
“A CLO can help redefine what a career looks like by considering the life stages of employees," Schurman said. "For example, a new parent might want to transition to a part-time or fractional role while raising kids, but then transition back to full-time. The same applies to older workers, who may want to reduce their hours while still contributing to the organization.
“A big part of this is continual investment in employees," he added, "through education and benefit design.”
The CLO helps companies adapt to the demographic shift towards longer lives, much of which may be spent working. It does this by redesigning career paths, benefit structures, and workplace culture for employees with work lives spanning 60 years or more.
Picture a company facing an impending talent crisis. Its most experienced employees — with decades of deep institutional knowledge — are fast approaching retirement age and look set to take their precious knowledge with them along with their boxed-up personal belongings.
To complicate matters further, the younger employees are complaining of burnout in their droves and are desperately in search of a better work-life balance. Consequently, the company is hemorrhaging employees at both ends of the age pool.
But instead of implementing yet another wellness program, the company decides to hire a CLO — someone with a background in business and science — to weave longevity principles into the fabric of the company, from designing flexible working programs to help younger employees recover from burnout to designing projects that stimulate productivity in older employees.
If the circumstances of the company you work for are anything like those described, bringing a CLO onboard could be considered a pretty safe bet.
But for Jean Accius, president and CEO at Creating Healthier Communities, a nonprofit that addresses the root causes of health disparities and promotes wellbeing, the question is less about whether a company needs a CLO and more about whether it has a clear, accountable strategy for longevity.
“A CLO consolidates responsibility for workforce, health, equity, and market opportunity into a single executive role — turning longevity from a ‘soft’ aspiration into a measurable business strategy,” he said.
“But there are alternative models. Some companies may embed longevity within the chief human resources officer portfolio, appointing a vice president of longevity and multigenerational workforce.
"Others might expand the scope of a chief health and wellbeing officer to explicitly include health span and equity or form centers of excellence or cross-functional longevity councils that tie together HR, benefits, learning and development, DEI, and product strategy.
“Regardless of the structure, what is non-negotiable is that longevity must be owned, measured, and resourced.”
Dr. David Luu, the global chief longevity advisor at L’Oreal, is a big believer in companies training internal “longevity coaches” to bring practical knowledge to all employees, regardless of seniority.
John Mellkvist, secretary general of Pluskommissionen in Stockholm, Sweden, and author of the book "Choose Your Age," takes this a step further. He predicts that the principles the CLO position represents will become so ingrained in business that the job title itself becomes obsolete.
“As longevity becomes more mainstream, I assume the CLO title will eventually dissolve into a fundamental perspective embedded within different roles and functions,” he said.
“Ultimately, it all depends on what future needs look like and how companies choose to organize themselves to meet them.”
An incoming CLO can potentially affect your working life in three main ways.
The days of an all-out sprint to the top of the corporate ladder — motivated by the promise of a fixed retirement and a commemorative gold-plated watch — are long gone.
Instead, you can expect to be offered a spot on programs dedicated to re-skilling and up-skilling with a view to keeping your skills portfolio relevant for a much longer period of time.
A CLO can design a career path that caters to different stages of your life. For example, you might be given an opportunity to take a sabbatical, train for a new role within the company or choose a phased retirement option where you gradually scale back your work hours instead of calling it quits on the spot. In this way, your lifelong career can become a series of “mini-careers.”
Let’s say you’re a 40-year old marketing manager who has always had your sights set on landing that elusive VP role. Under the leadership of a CLO, you could take a three-month sabbatical to get your certificate in data science, then lead a brand new analytics team. This would be a “second act” within the same company, which combines your existing knowledge base with a panoply of newer, more in-demand skills.
When your company says “hello” to the idea of hiring a CLO, you can bet that it will soon kiss “goodbye” to age-related siloes.
This is because it’s a CLO’s responsibility to make longevity a competitive advantage by conjuring up new and ingenious programs that blend the fresh perspective of younger talent with the deep experience of seasoned veterans — creating a bona fide multi-generational workforce.
Imagine you’ve been the head of product marketing for the past 20 years, so you’re an expert in applying all the old-school marketing techniques. But this time around, your company wants to launch a viral TikTok campaign, which is completely outside your wheelhouse.
With this shortcoming in mind, an incoming CLO will probably pair you up with a 25-year old digital native in a reverse mentorship relationship — with you as the mentee learning all there is to know about the quirks and complexities of marketing products on TikTok.
The bottom line is that your knowledge of the business, coupled with your mentor’s social media savvy, will likely create content that is far more impactful than either of you could have produced alone.
A CLO turns the traditional corporate benefit structure completely on its head: out goes the outdated one-size-fits-all model and in comes more modern, bespoke benefits that support you over a multi-decade career of 60-plus years.
Beyond your no-frills retirement plan, basic 401(k) and standard gym membership, a CLO will consider giving you more comprehensive, personalized support for physical and mental wellbeing at every stage of your working life.
For instance, you may be entitled to allocate company funds not just to your retirement, but also to financial planning seminars on creating and managing generational wealth. Or if you’re a caregiver, you can give company money to your dependent children and aging parents.
That depends. If the CLO isn't given the resources it requires, it could just be the latest in a long line of flowery, PR-friendly executive titles on the corporate conveyor belt that have far more pomp than substance.
But if the role is funded by a solid budget, receives the unequivocal buy-in of the CEO and the wider C-suite, and is empowered to bring about meaningful and lasting change across the company, then it may well turn out to be an absolute game-changer for businesses.
