Quote:
Originally Posted by dukedg
Okay, I did the Fortune 10 (but can keep adding to the list if people are interested). All information is from Fortune, Reuters and Business Week. Please let me know if you notice any errors.
Infomation in following order: Company CEO Age MBA?
1. Wal-Mart Stores H. Lee Scott Jr. 62 No (JD)
2. Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson 55 No (BS in Civil Engineering)
3. General Motors G. Richard Wagoner 54 Yes (HBS)
4. Chevron David O'Reilly 61 No (BS in Chemical Engineering)
5. ConocoPhillips James Mulva 61 Yes (McCombs (UT))
6. General Electric Jeffrey Immelt 52 Yes (HBS)
7. Ford Motor Alan Mulally 62 No (Masters in Science and Masters in Management)
8. Citigroup Vikram Pandit 51 No (MS in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Finance)
9. Bank of America Corp Kenneth Lewis 60 No (Bachelors in Finance and Executive program at Stanford)
10. American Intl. Group Martin Sullivan 53 Unknown (He is a chartered accountant (British CPA))
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Only possible correction would be to declare #9- Bank of America CEO a "Yes". I am not sure how it works at Stanford, but generally speaking any reference to an "Executive" program is a reference to an MBA- specifically the Executive MBA program I mentioned above at Texas for those who earn their MBA while continuing their career.
But I would point out that while 4 of the 10 on your list have MBAs, at least 7 of them have advanced degrees beyond undergrad- and advanced degrees specific to their professions.
Plus on the Oil and Gas side, it is not uncommon for engineers to be CEOs. However that industry is not in growth mode nor is it of interest to many general business students. Thus it is tricky to use that particular industry to recommend people get their MBA or not. If nothing else, once you get into oil and gas- that is pretty much where you stay. The regulations, nature of the business and accounting functions are highly specific- and at a fairly early point in your career you have to decide whether to go that route or not. It is not easy to jump from oil and gas to another industry once you are entrenched.
Not trying to beat up on you or anything- but just sort through the statistics with a more specific approach to explain why I strongly advocate people get their MBA if they intend to rise in the corporate ranks.
jubilance1922- I cannot speak to all technical professions, but a number of physicians and medical researchers have obtained MBAs in recent years so that they can move out of medicine and into the highly lucrative health care management field.
But this is a specific circumstance born of the growing power of business in the management and oversight of medicine, and not necessarily reflective of the need for people in other technical fields to get MBAs.
Doctor salaries for all but top specialists have been under significant downward pressure in recent years, and so with all the money to be made in the still growing health care industry on the business side- many physicians have made the leap through both their technical experience and by attaining an MBA.