Cracker Barrel’s decision to recruit 69-year-old David Deno after his retirement belongs to a striking series of corporate recalls. Nike brought Elliott Hill back four years after he retired, Verizon recruited Dan Schulman after he retired from PayPal, and Disney famously returned Bob Iger to its top job.
For boards, the appeal is straightforward. As my colleague Phil Wahba explains, when a company is under pressure, a leader who has already run a major business can look safer than someone taking the top job for the first time. That preference for proven leaders is showing up in the numbers. Russell Reynolds Associates found that 34% of CEOs appointed by S&P 500 companies in the first half of 2026 had previously led a public company, up from 22% a year earlier.
