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Wanted: CEO, No Ivy Required

By Del Jones, USA Today, April 7, 2005

This cover story describes how more CEOs of Fortune 1,000 firms are graduating from non-Ivy League schools. Many of the institutions cited are CIC members.

Excerpts:

...If anything, the CEO trend away from Ivies is intensifying. So far in 2005 there have been 24 new CEOs named to run Fortune 1,000 companies, according to public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. USA Today found only one...with an Ivy League Degree.

...Clarence Otis, CEO of Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster and Olive Garden), got a law degree at Stanford ('80), but he credits his liberal arts education at Williams College ('77) for critical thinking skills. "You get intellectual engagement with the faculty. That's not always available at Stanford or an Ivy League school," he says.

...Murry Gerber is CEO of gas company Equitable Resources. He went to Augustana. "I don't believe someone from Augustana College would end up with the mess of Enron, to put it bluntly."

...Attending Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., "made me CEO of Sara Lee," she [Brenda Barnes] says. With a workforce of 150,400 and 2004 sales of $19.6 billion, Sara Lee is the largest corporation with a female CEO. "We alums at Augustana, we say there might be other schools that open more doors," says Barnes, who declines most interviews but was quick to come to the phone to talk about her alma mater. "Once we get in the door, we stand up better than anybody."

List of CEOs who graduated from CIC institutions:

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