http://www.forbes.com/2003/01/31/cx_dd_0131frat.html
Management
Best Fraternities For Future CEOs
Davide Dukcevich, 01.31.03, 12:00 PM ET
NEW YORK - Don't be surprised if you see your company directors
exchanging secret handshakes at the next board meeting. After all,
about a quarter of all chief executives on the Forbes Super 500 list
of America's largest corporations were members of college
fraternities.
Despite what movies such as Animal House suggest, fraternities and
sororities are more than just freshman rush and beer busts. The
social skills that help students gain admittance into the Greek
system are the same aptitudes that can later give them a leg-up in
corporate climbing. Plus, once they've graduated, they can tap into
the network of past fraternity brothers or sisters who litter all
tiers of corporate America.
Big Companies, Old School Ties
These are the ten-largest American companies with fraternity members
at the helm. Click on the CEO names for their profiles.
Forbes 500 Rank Company
CEO
Fraternity
1 Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people )
Sanford Weill
Alpha Epsilon Pi
4 American International Group (nyse: AIG - news - people )
Maurice Greenberg
Sigma Alpha Mu
12 J.P. Morgan Chase (nyse: JPM - news - people )
William B. Harrison Jr.
Zeta Psi
19 Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people )
Henry Paulson
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
21 Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG - news - people )
Alan Lafley
Psi Upsilon
24 Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people )
G. Kennedy Thompson
Beta Theta Pi
25 Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRKa - news - people )
Warren Buffett
Alpha Sigma Phi
27 Home Depot (nyse: HD - news - people )
Robert Nardelli
Tau Kappa Epsilon
28 BellSouth (nyse: BLS - news - people )
F. Duane Ackerman
Lambda Chi Alpha
29 General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people )
G. Richard Wagoner
Delta Tau Delta
Data from The North-American Interfraternity Conference and Forbes
The numbers certainly seem to back this theory up. A mere 8.5% of
full-time university undergraduates are members of either a
fraternity or a sorority. Not only have fraternities been the
breeding ground of those 120 Forbes 500s chief executive officers,
they also have spawned 48% of all U.S. presidents, 42% of U.S.
senators, 30% of U.S. congressmen, and 40% of U.S. Supreme Court
justices, according to data from the The North-American
Interfraternity Conference.
Best Fraternities For Future CEOs
Fraternity Members Who Are Forbes 500s CEOs
Beta Theta Pi 11
Sigma Alpha Epsilon 9
Sigma Chi 9
Lambda Chi Alpha 8
Alpha Tau Omega 7
Wachovia CEO G. Kennedy Thompson said that Beta Theta Pi, which he
joined while an undergrad at the University of North Carolina, gave
him "the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds and
places, and the connections have continued beyond my university years
to my business life."
He is also a member of the fraternity that produced the most CEOs
among the biggest 500 companies in the country. Beta Theta Pi can
boast of 11 such CEOs, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi are tied in
second at nine, Lamba Chi Alpha has eight, and Alpha Tau Omega seven.
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