Americas Youngest CEOs

In case you haven’t noticed, the stereotypical image of a silver-haired 50-something chief executive wearing a perfectly dimpled necktie is fading.The top dog at the company no longer has to fit that mold to gain the trust of his or her peers and shareholders. Authority and competence are no longer found just in a look — and age and experience don’t always dictate performance.

Take the youthful Michael Chasen, the 36-year-old CEO and co-founder of Blackboard, a developer and marketer of educational software. He started the venture with his college roommate, Matthew Pittinsky, in 1997, and has since helped it grow into a $183 million company that services students around the globe.

Despite being as high as one can go in the world of corporate job titles, Chasen is not one to rest on his — or his company’s — laurels.

“Forever seems like a little bit of a long time,” Chasen said. “To me, all we’ve really done is make sure we have a spot at starting line of the race.”

And he definitely wants to take Blackboard the distance.

Chasen said age, to a point, does matter in the tech business, since it’s typically the younger generation that has kept its finger on the industry’s pulse. So, naturally, he was an early adopter of the iPhone, and has a Facebook profile. Even as a millionaire, a CEO can still afford to be a kid from time to time.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/10/young-boss-ceos-lead-manage-cx_mk_1010thirties_slide_2.html?partner=yahoo

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/103730/The-Thirty-Somethings-Running-Your-Company?mod=oneclick