Dive Brief:
- The University of Pennsylvania topped the rankings of institutions whose undergraduate programs lay claim to the most alumni who are sitting CFOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies this year, according to a broad-ranging summer report on C-suite trends by executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates.
- Fifteen UPenn alumni hold the finance reins at these companies this year, followed by 11 at the University of Texas at Austin. The Pennsylvania State University and University of Notre Dame finished up the list with a tie, each having 10 graduates in CFO seats.
- Schools in the Big Ten domestic sports conference once again educated more CFOs than those from any other conference. Roughly 10% of all sitting CFOs came from the largely public universities that make up the group, edging out the Ivy League, as was the case in last year’s study.
Dive Insight:
Experts say public universities have traditionally been breeding grounds for finance chiefs because they generally offer some of the country’s strongest accounting programs, CFO Dive previously reported. In contrast, students at Ivy League schools typically have business majors that are more in keeping with a liberal arts focus, such as economics and various social science degrees.
This year’s study found that CFOs “overwhelmingly” majored in accounting.
When it comes to top corporate leadership, the top conference yielding CEOs is flipped: the Ivy League universities — composed of some of the country’s most selective universities — yielded more CEOs than any other conference, accounting for 10% of all sitting CEOs. This year, the University of Pennsylvania had the most CEOs with 16, followed by Cornell University (15) and Harvard University (13).
This year there was also a shakeup in the top public college finance chief rankings. The University of Texas at Austin rose from third place to unseat University of Virginia to top the list, while Penn State remained in second place, and University of Connecticut moved up from fourth place to the third place spot.
The ranking of top private universities with CFO graduates held the same with UPenn at the top, followed by University of Notre Dame (10), Duke University (9), Stanford University (9) and Harvard(7).
When it comes to graduate schools that yield CFOs, the University of Chicago’s MBA program graduates accounted for the most CFOs, followed by Harvard and Northwestern University in second and third place, while Harvard’s MBA program developed the most CEOs.
The report tracked 667 CFOs and 680 CEOs at a total of 645 public and 26 private companies based on data gathered through Aug. 1.