I researched the background of the top 100 CEOs on the Fortune 500 (US) Company List; this is what I found.
(Or read an interactive version of the post from the link below:
www[dot]michaelshoe[dot]com/there-might-just-be-a-ceo-degree/
Where Did They Go to College?The colleges these CEOs went to are as diverse as they can be. Most institutions only see one of their distinguished alumni making the top of Corporate America, except:
- Boston College (4): BC actually has the most alumni as CEOs in the top 100 companies, more than any other institutions, seeing Karen S. Lynch, Peter S. Zaffino, Robert B. Ford, and Ernie L. Herrman leading CVS Health, American International Group, Abbott Laboratories, and TJX respectively.
- Harvard (3): Andy Jassy of Amazon, Sarah London of Centene, and Tim Sweeney of Liberty Mutual went to Harvard College for undergrad.
- Cornell (3): Jon Moeller of P&G, Tim Wentworth of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Craig Desanto of New York Life Insurance went to Cornell for undergrad.
- Texas A&M (3): This might be the most surprising (no offense Texas A&M!). Darren W. Woods of Exxon Mobil, David M. Cordani of Cigna Group, and Bruce D. Broussard of Humana went to Texas A&M for undergrad.
- Dartmouth, University of Kentucky, Ithaca College, Penn State, Air Force Academy, and Iowa State are the only other schools that have more than one (2 to be exact) alumni as CEO of the Top 100 companies.
Almost all but four CEOs have bachelor's degrees. The exceptions are:- Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta. Mark dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year to pursue the Facebook opportunity full-time.
- Michael S. Dell, Founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. Michael dropped out of University of Texas, Austin in his freshman year to run his business full-time.
- Richard A. Gonzalez, CEO of AbbVie: Richard was educated at the University of Houston in the field of biochemistry, but never received his bachelor's degree.
- Kevin Murphy, newly appointed CEO of Publix since Jan. 2024: I found nothing on Kevin's educational background other than a dubious source saying that he went to Hofstra. It's rare that a CEO will want to cover his college background, so I'm putting Kevin in the category of no college degree.
Did They Have Advanced Degrees Post College?62 out of 100 CEOs have some sort of advanced degrees.
Out of the 62 advanced degree holders, 44 are MBA degree holders. The MBA group is by far the single biggest on the list, showing a common path taken by CEOs across different industries. There are a total of 9 doctorate degree holders, including PHD, JD, and MD, and 9 M.S. degree holders.
Which Business Schools Did the CEOs Get Their MBAs From?Harvard Business School again demonstrates its exceptional impact on Corporate America. With 7 CEO alumni, the HBS tops the list of business schools with the most CEO. University of Chicago's
Booth School of Business comes in second, with 3 alumni. The so-called M7 business schools collectively have showcased their dominance against other businesses in this game. With a total of 18 CEO alumni, six of the seven M7 business schools score more than one CEO in the Top 100 Fortune 500 Companies. The only outlier, MIT's Sloan School of Management, has no CEO alumni at all in the top 100.
- The M7 Business Schools:
- Harvard Business School (7)
- Chicago Booth (3)
- Stanford GSB (2)
- Wharton (2)
- Columbia Business School (2)
- Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (2)
UCLA Anderson, Michigan Ross, NYU Stern, and Esade Business School are the only other business schools that score more than one (2 to be exact) CEO. Among these four, Michigan Ross and NYU Stern are commonly referred to a group of US business schools called T15, while UCLA Anderson belongs to T20. However, no other T15 or T20 schools have more than one CEO.
T15 Schools with Top 100 Company CEOs:
- Ross School of Business, University of Michigan: Vivek Sankaran, Albertsons CEO; Robert D. Isom, American Airlines Group CEO
- Stern School of Business, New York University: Charles W. Scharf, Wells Fargo CEO; Peter S. Zaffino, AIG CEO
- Fuqua School of Business, Duke University: Tim Cook, Apple CEO
- Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley: Robert B. Ford, Abbott Laboratories CEO
- Johnson School of Business, Cornell University: Jon R. Moeller, Procter & Gamble CEO
T20 Schools with Top 100 Company CEOs:
- UCLA Anderson School of Management: Jim Farley, Ford Motor CEO; John T. Stankey, AT&T CEO
- Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University: Ted Decker, Home Depot CEO
- McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin: Raj Subramaniam, FedEx CEO
- Goizueta Business School, Emory University: Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe's CEO
02 Apr 2024, 22:22
