Two job types more than half of the world’s top 100 CEOs have worked in
Recruitment website, Aaron Wallis, has released a new report on the characteristics of the world’s top 100 most influential CEOs.
The study is based upon a number of separate reports and publications – including the most recent Forbes data – with the aim of collating them to help decipher the first career moves and education of the world’s most powerful CEOs.
Unsurprisingly, the research suggests that it is near impossible to make it to the top of one of the largest businesses without a degree – 98% of the top 100 CEOs are graduates.
Of the 98 graduates, the most popular degree type was business (36%) followed by engineering, accounting for 23% of the graduate CEOs.
The breakdown of the top 5 degree types for CEO graduates are:
| Degree type | Count of CEOs |
|---|---|
| Business | 33 |
| Engineering | 21 |
| Economics | 10 |
| Accounting & Finance | 9 |
| Computer Science | 4 |
The research also looks into the age and gender of the largest companies’ CEOs. 96% of these CEOs are male, with only 4 of the largest businesses in the World having a female CEO.
The average ‘Top CEO’ age is 59, with by far the most prominent age group being between 56-60, accounting for 42% of the CEOs reviewed.
The top 5 age groups can be seen below, out of 96 CEOs with publicly available information of their age:
| Age range | Count of CEOs |
|---|---|
| 56-60 | 40 |
| 61-65 | 23 |
| 51-55 | 15 |
| 66-70 | 8 |
| 41-45 | 3 |
Finally, the study reviews the career backgrounds of the most powerful CEOs, grouping their career backgrounds into concise categories. 54% of the ‘Top CEOs’ have a career background in either finance or operations.
The top 5 career backgrounds can be seen below:
| Professional Background | Proportion of CEOs |
|---|---|
| Operations | 28% |
| Finance | 26% |
| R & D | 14% |
| Data analysis | 11% |
| Sales | 8% |
“In 2018 we are seeing that it is near impossible to lead a big business without being a graduate and that earning an MBA can be a real advantage to progressing your career, said Rob Scott, MD at Aaron Wallis.
“Starting out in an operations or finance related field can give you the mindset and strategic thinking which is necessary to make it to the top,” he said.
“It’s also unsurprising how many CEOs in our study have worked in a sales role at some point in their career, teaching you the communication skills to manage staff and negotiate large business deals.”
Read: A third of SA jobs will either change or disappear: Gauteng premier
Loading ...
