Mark Fitzgibbon quips there’s a simple reason he’s retiring as chief executive of NIB after a 22-year stint: “I didn’t want to do a Joe Biden.”

But fittingly for an insurance boss, Fitzgibbon, who turns 65 in November, has done the numbers. About 10 per cent of Australian males make it to 90 years of age, so he wants 15 more summers where he can get his golf handicap down, finish that book about leadership lessons he’s been quietly chipping away at, and see what non-executive life holds.