Donna Butts Executive Director Generations United Washington, Dec. 16, 2010.
"People who are in their 50's now, once they begin on a computer there's no going back," said Tobey Dichter, president and chief executive of Generations on Line, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that provides libraries, nursing homes and senior centers nationwide with special software geared toward the elderly.
But neither is having as much impact as Mr. Akerson is at G.M., where senior executives for generations adhered to a strict code of conformity and predictability.
Aside from being remembered as the boldest auto executive of his generation, the answer is scale.
William McGrath, the chief executive, said: The generation of cash was the big achievement of 2009 and that remains the focus given the caution needed in the current market.
"There is an inevitability about the use of it," said Jeffrey Lewis, the chief executive of the Generation Mortgage Company, one of the biggest remaining independent players in the reverse mortgage industry.
John E. Swearingen, the most powerful oil executive of his generation and a highly visible defender of the industry in the energy crisis of the 1970s, died on Friday in Birmingham, Ala.
So what makes a young man who works for one of the sexiest agencies in the world and has been described as the brightest advertising executive of his generation want to move to Discovery, a company that even its fans would agree has a rather worthy reputation?
David Stenhouse, executive producer of Generation 2014, said the teenagers would make a valuable contribution to BBC Scotland's referendum coverage.
"We're talking about a $10 to $15 premium per metric ton, which comes down to a few cents on every item," says Chris Miller, an executive in Seventh Generation's "corporate consciousness" department.
