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Q: CEO's without college education ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: CEO's without college education
Category: Business and Money > Economics
Asked by: ericsr1-ga
List Price: $25.00
Posted: 19 Sep 2006 20:57 PDT
Expires: 19 Oct 2006 20:57 PDT
Question ID: 766831
Looking to find what CEO's of Fortune 100 companies that do not have
college degrees. Also list if they have some college, but did not complete.
Answer  
Subject: Re: CEO's without college education
Answered By: politicalguru-ga on 20 Sep 2006 00:19 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Dear Ericsr1, 

There is almost no CEO, who hasn't got at least a bachelor degree.
Most also have MBAs or JDs.

There is this list, but it doesn't say who dropped out in the middle: 
JOSEPH R. SANTO, "Where the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College", Time,
Aug. 15, 2006, <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1227055,00.html>

Another source might be: 
Colleges attended by CEOs hired at Fortune 1000 firms in 2004, 2005 
<http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-04-07-ceo-colleges.htm>
(but it doesn't rate the top-100, nor does it say if these people have
acutally graduated).

The only CEO of the top-50, whose education is listed as n/a is Martin
J Sullivan, the CEO of AIG, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't
find where (or whether) he went to college. However, if he hasn't gone
to college (which I doubt, I think that his full biography is just
unavailable online) he is the only one of those top-50. I have checked
for the other 49, and they all *graduated* from college.

Martin J. Sullivan
<http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/12/I8BE.html> 
Forbes also do not know anything about his education. I have emailed
AIG, and if they'll get back to me, I'll tell you for sure.

Bill Gates might have made it to the list, too, but he's not the CEO
of Microsoft (he famousely dropped out of college). Steve Ballmer, the
CEO, has a college degree from Harvard.

To check the other 99 (except for Sullivan) and make sure that they've
graduated from college, I took the current Fortune-100 list at
Wikipedia (List of Fortune 500,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fortune_500>), clicked on each
company's article, from there got myself to the CEO (or in cases that
the CEO was not mentioned in the article, looked him or her up), and
checked his or her educational achievements (usually by looking up
their names on Google with the term "CEO" and "college OR
university").

To summarise: 99 CEOs have a college degree, most of them have also
attended graduate school (in fact, those who haven't could be counted
on one hand). One CEO *might* not have a college degree, because none
is mentioned in any of his biographies. However, there is very little
biographical material on this specific CEO, so it is also possible
that he has graduated from college, but it is not mentioned on his
online biographies.

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it. My search strategy
was mentioned in my answer.
ericsr1-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $5.00
Excellent info. Thanks!

Comments  
Subject: Re: CEO's without college education
From: markvmd-ga on 20 Sep 2006 08:11 PDT
 
Kid, listen to yuor parents and just go to school. Stop looking for
loopholes. While Bill Gates may not have graduated, he dropped out of
freakin' Harvard, fer cryin' out loud. If you are smart enough to get
accepted to Harvard, you have my permission to drop out after a couple
of years.
Subject: Re: CEO's without college education
From: ericsr1-ga on 22 Sep 2006 07:52 PDT
 
I really appreciate your comment (NOT), since this is for research not
for staying out of school.
Subject: Re: CEO's without college education
From: politicalguru-ga on 23 Sep 2006 02:12 PDT
 
Dear Eric, 

Thank you for the rating and the tip!

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