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2008 Data from Spencer Stuart on S&P 500 CEO shows once again more have undergraduate degrees in engineering than any other field, increasing to 22% of CEO’s this year.
| Field |
|
% of CEOs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |||
| Engineering | 22 | 21 | 23 | 20 | ||
| Economics | 16 | 15 | 13 | 11 | ||
| Business Administration | 13 | 13 | 12 | 15 | ||
| Accounting | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | ||
| Liberal Arts | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 | ||
| No degree or no data | 3 | 3 | ||||
The report does not show the fields for the rest of the CEO’s. 39% of S&P CEOs have MBAs. 28% have other advanced degrees. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard tied for the most CEO’s with undergraduate degrees from their universities at 13. Princeton and the University of Texas had 9 and Stanford had 8.
While the CEO’s have engineering education backgrounds the work they have done is often in other functions. The top function that CEO’s that have worked in during their careers: Operations (42%), Finance (31%), Marketing (24%), Sales (17%), Engineering (11%).
Data for previous years is also from Spencer Stuart: S&P 500 CEOs are Engineering Graduates (2007 data) 2006 S&P 500 CEO Education Study – Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering (2005 study)
Related: Another Survey Shows Engineering Degree Results in the Highest Pay – Science and Engineering Degrees lead to Career Success – The Future is Engineering
August 20th, 2009 at 8:54 am
i think this is interesting and good news. engineers can do lots of things, they are built to be problem solvers. and if you can learn about all the things engineers need then it should be easy to expand into other things.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Engineering degrees provide a “can do” learning basis. Practically, CEOs with engineering qualifications are sought to provide not just a management trait, but also to be able to replace and properly guide subordinates. Management just for the sake of management is kind of obsolete. We not only have to know how to run a business, but also how it works and how to manage it.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:37 am
This info doesn’t come to a surprise to me. I agree with Henry; most of the engineers I know have a very structured mind, are very pragmatic and have a good sense of reality.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:34 am
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