Ken Dychtwald


Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. is a gerontologist, psychologist, educator, lecturer, consultant, entrepreneur, and is the author of sixteen books. He is also the founder and CEO of Age Wave, a company that conducts benchmark field research and provides consulting services to corporations and non-profits organizations worldwide on issues relating to aging populations.
He was awarded the Inspire Award from in the International Council on Active Aging for his contributions to the active-aging industry and for his efforts to make a difference in the lives of older adults globally.
Dychtwald has served as a fellow and presenter at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was a delegate and featured presenter at both the 1995 and 2005 White House Conferences on Aging.

Life and career

Dychtwald grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Weequahic High School in 1967. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Union Graduate School. In 1973, at age 23, he became co-director of the SAGE Project. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, SAGE investigated how newly popular mind/body disciplines, such as yoga, meditation, nutrition therapy, and biofeedback could improve the health and well-being of older adults. At age 27, he published his first book, Bodymind, based on his doctoral thesis. In 1982, Dychtwald joined a panel created by the Office of Technology Assessment, a think tank for the US Congress, to examine how population aging would impact America in the 21st century.
In 1986, Dychtwald founded the California Bay Area-based company Age Wave, an advisor to companies and government groups regarding product and service development for men and women aged 50+.
In 2004, Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson, and Bob Morison wrote the article “It’s Time to Retire Retirement”, which tied for the first place McKinsey Prize as the best article of the year in the Harvard Business Review.
Dychtwald produced and hosted the 2007 two-hour PBS special, The Boomer Century: 1946-2046. His most recent PBS special With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance In Work and Life aired nationwide in 2009 to coincide with the book release of the same title.
Dychtwald is involved in activities including the Alzheimer's XPRIZE, which he co-envisioned with XPRIZE Founder Dr. Peter Diamandis in 2012. The Alzheimer's XPRIZE team is now preparing to globally crowdsource a new approach to ending Alzheimer's disease.
In 1983, Dychtwald married Maddy Kent Dychtwald, a professional lecturer, author and co-founder of Age Wave. They have two children, Casey and Zak.

Consumer and social theories

Age Wave

Ken Dychtwald developed the concept of the Age Wave, which refers specifically to a massive population and cultural shift caused by the converging global demographic forces of the baby boom of the middle twentieth century, increasing life expectancy, and the declining fertility rates of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Dychtwald argues that as the boomer generation continues to mature, life's second half will be further transformed and that, in the next several decades, this age wave will shift the epicenter of consumer activity from a focus on youth to the needs, challenges, and aspirations of maturing consumers. According to Dychtwald, the Age Wave will also put unprecedented pressure on families, communities and governments as multiplying numbers of older adults strain entitlements, eldercare, healthcare and pensions.

Middlescence

In 1988, Dychtwald began popularizing the term “middlescence" a theory which suggests that with the modern postponement of old age due to extended longevity, and the multiplying numbers of people who were reinventing themselves post-youth, a new middlescent lifestage was rising up between 45 and 65.

Books