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Ken Dychtwald    

Founder & CEO of Age Wave, Psychologist, Gerontologist, Documentary Filmmaker, Entrepreneur & Best-Selling Author

Over the past 45+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health care, economic and workforce implications of the age wave.

Dychtwald is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling author of 19 books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind; Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society; Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old; Healthy Aging; Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings; A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success; What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age; and Sages of Aging: A Guide for Changemakers. His memoir was updated and re-released in September 2023 as Radical Curiosity: My Life on the Age Wave. He was the executive producer and host of the highly rated/acclaimed PBS documentary, The Boomer Century: 1946–2046 which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations nationwide as well as the public television special, Life’s Third Age. Sages of Aging is Dychtwald’s latest national public television program featuring profound conversations with twelve of the leading pathfinders in the fields of aging.

Since 1986, Dychtwald has been the Founder and CEO of Age Wave, an acclaimed think tank and consultancy focused on the social and business implications and opportunities of global aging and rising longevity. His client list has included over half the Fortune 500. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum and was a featured speaker at two White House Conferences on Aging. In 2023, Dychtwald has received the distinguished American Society on Aging Award for outstanding national leadership three times and, most recently, was awarded the President’s Award from ASA. American Demographics honored him as the single most influential marketer to baby boomers over the past quarter century. His article in the Harvard Business Review, “It’s Time to Retire Retirement,” was awarded the prestigious McKinsey Award, tying for first place with the legendary Peter Drucker. He was honored by Investment Advisor as one of the 35 most influential thought leaders in the financial services industry over the past 35 years. Dychtwald and his wife, Maddy, recently received the Esalen Prize for their outstanding contributions to advancing the human potential of aging men and women worldwide. In 2018 he was awarded the Inspire Award from the International Council on Active Aging for his exceptional and lasting contributions to the active-aging industry and for his efforts to make a difference in the lives of older adults globally. In 2020, he was the first recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Retirement Coaches Association.

During his career, Dychtwald has addressed more than two million people worldwide in his speeches to corporate, association, social service, and government groups. His strikingly accurate predictions and innovative ideas are regularly featured in leading print and electronic media worldwide and have garnered over twenty billion media impressions.

Speech Topics


Enough is Enough: Consumers 50+ Want Marketing and Advertising to Grow Up

The keynote is complete with heartfelt examples of what’s working and what’s not together with successful strategies to win over this often-overlooked consumer.

How the Modern Family Is Transforming Aging, Retirement and Community

We are all familiar with families like the Cleavers or the Simpsons—Dad, Mom, and 2.5 kids happily living under one roof in the suburbs. But over the past 100 years, significant demographic and economic changes have dramatically transformed the American familyand communities across the country. We no longer live in a world where most people are the member of a “nuclear family.” How is today’s modern family—or post-nuclear family—different? How do—and will—family changes impact health and care needs, the workforce, housing, legacy, leisure, social services, and financial planning? What are the implications for businesses and aging service providers? How do we navigate the potentially complicated relationships and compelling challenges faced by modern families in retirement and later life, such as blending families together and bridging the miles between relatives living in faraway communities? This presentation covers four trends that, in concert, have transformed and continue to profoundly influence today’s families: Unprecedented longevity, family complexity, financial interdependence, and women’s rising influence.

What is the New Vision for 21st Century Aging?

The 20th century is over—and most solutions to 20th century aging don’t work anymore. Are we prepared for the coming age wave? Can our country afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80, 90 or even 100+? Will existing entitlement programs survive long enough for young generations to reap even part of what they have been paying in? Can our current healthcare system handle the onslaught of chronic degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s? What should the role of medical science play in wiping out late life diseases? Who are the emerging role models of the new aging? Are our leaders capable of distributing limited government resources fairly among many generations, each with its own distinct needs, styles, fears, complaints, expectations and political priorities? This visionary presentation will explore both the problems that the age wave brings—and their five interlocking solutions.

Optimizing Generational Diversity: Four Cohorts Rethink Work, Money, Family, Retirement & Success

For the first time in history, four generations of active adults are simultaneously participating in the workforce and marketplace. Each has its own lifestyle values, attitudes about work and money, means of connecting and communicating, role models, and marketplace preferences.

This high-impact presentation will examine: What key social forces have shaped each generation and produced their distinct, core lifetime characteristics? What does each generation hope to get from—and give to—their jobs/careers? How do you manage and motivate each generation, from "encore" workers seeking stimulation and self-worth, to older workers looking for balance and purpose, to mid-career workers trying to reboot their enthusiasm for a longer and more demanding worklife, to young workers struggling to enter the workforce during tough economic times. How does each measure success?

This presentation can focus on how to attract and retain valuable talent and enhance productivity through the creative use of flexible work arrangements, innovative learning, mentoring and sponsoring opportunities, sabbaticals, retraining, re-careering, flex-retirement, and creative compensation and benefits programs. Alternatively, it can orient toward the most effective ways to reach out to—and connect with—Millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers, and members of the Silent Generation.

A New Agenda for 21st-Century Aging: Seven Critical Course Corrections Needed for a Century of Successful Aging

Will the aging of America prove to be a triumph or a tragedy? Based on 35-plus years at the crossroads of demography, gerontology, healthcare, and business, Ken Dychtwald provides a big-picture presentation designed to inform, startle, provoke, and motivate us toward the seven critical course corrections needed for a century of successful aging.

Questions to be asked—and answered: Is the longevity revolution over—or is it just beginning? Can our country afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80, 90, or even past 100? Are older adults an asset or a liability? How will boomers age differently than their parents? When does old age begin—and should old-age benefits be indexed to advancing longevity? How must our current healthcare system change to manage the onslaught of boomers and their chronic degenerative diseases? Is retirement obsolete? What should be the new purpose of maturity? Are we becoming a political gerontocracy? Are our leaders capable of distributing limited government resources fairly among many generations, each with its own distinct needs, styles, fears, expectations, and political priorities?

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