Strategy

33% Of CEOs Majored In Engineering -- And Other Surprising Facts About Your Boss

Judith Aquino
2011-03-23T17:33:00Z
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Chief executive officers are the rock stars of their company. As a company’s leader, how a CEO spends his or her time defines the company and determines how profitable it will be.

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Unsurprisingly, the behavior of a CEO is often scrutinized by investors and the public. 

Researchers at SpencerStuart took a close look at the educational background of S&P 500 CEOs. We've collected some of these stats and others determined by IBM and Harvard Business School.

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33% of the S&P 500 CEOs' undergraduate degrees are in engineering and only 11% are in business administration.

Rex Tillerson

Source: SpencerStuart

Less than 10% of top S&P 500 CEOs received degrees from Ivy League schools.

harvard
joebeoneviaFlickr

Source: SpencerStuart

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All the CEOs of utility S&P 500 companies possessed bachelor degrees, making them the most highly educated group.

graduate
willhale via Flickr

Source: SpencerStuart

The functional role that led to becoming a CEO was most commonly finance at 15%, followed by general management at 9%.

wall st.
rob-youngviaFlickr

Source: SpencerStuart

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Printing and publishing companies had the least educated S&P 500 CEOs. Only 91% held bachelor degrees.

students
jonatz via Flickr

Source: SpencerStuart

60% of the CEOs in this IBM study cited creativity as the most important leadership quality.

artist
alexkonviaFlickr

Source: IBM 2010 Global CEO Study

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Fairness and humility came in last at 12%.

mark zuckerberg

Source: IBM 2010 Global CEO Study

About 60% of a CEO’s time is spent in meetings.

meeting

Source: Harvard Business School

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CEOs spent 25% of their time on phone calls and at public events.

Phone
ggunson via Flickr

Source: Harvard Business School

And only 15% of their time was spent working alone.

office
tryingmyhardest via Flickr

Source: Harvard Business School

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CEOs spent 42% of their time with other employees.

office
WageIndicator PaulienOsse via Flickr

Source: Harvard Business School

Among outsiders, CEOs spend about 4.7 hours per week with consultants and only about 1.3 hours with suppliers.

meeting
Baltic-development-forum via Flickr

Source: Harvard Business School

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Want to be a CEO? Here's how to do it:

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flickr

How To Turn Yourself Into CEO Material

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