Fortune 500 list: Which CEOs from top US companies have MBAs?

Fortune announced its Fortune 500 list for the 2019 fiscal year which ranks the largest corporations in the United States by revenue.

The revenue threshold for making the 2020 Fortune 500 list was $5.7 billion, up 1% from last year. In the 2020 list, Walmart took the top spot for the eighth year in a row, generating $4 trillion cumulative revenue over that time.

Amazon.com took the second spot while Exxon Mobil, Apple, and CVS Health are listed as the top five companies on this list.

While there are a few exceptions, including the founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, and even Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook, formal qualifications are a standard for the top tier of the business world.

We took a look at some of the preferred qualifications among the CEOs that lead the top 10 companies on the Fortune 500 list

Out of the top 10 companies, less than half the CEOs earned a master’s level qualification in business administration (MBA). CEOs from companies that made the list and earned MBAs include the president and  CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon, and the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Darren Woods.

McMillion earned his MBA upon graduating from the programme at the University of Tulsa while Woods attended the MBA programme at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

While a bachelor’s degree and a graduate degree are common for top CEOs, there is no single major or graduate degree that they all have in common.

Out of the top 10, only two CEOs graduated with STEM bachelor’s degrees and did not go on to earn postgraduate degrees in business fields. Jeff Bezos who leads Amazon.com graduated in double engineering undergraduate degrees while Larry Merlo, who leads CVS Health earned a bachelor’s level qualification in pharmacy.

Economics, accounting, and commerce are also some of the more common qualifications preferred by the CEOs from the top 10 companies featured in this Fortune 500 list.

Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart

Doug McMillon is the president and chief executive officer of Walmart Inc. Doug graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Tulsa.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com

Before he became CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering and a bachelor’s of science degree in computer science from Princeton University.

Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil

Darren Woods was elected president of Exxon Mobil Corporation and a member of the board of directors in 2016 and a year later, Woods was elected as chairman and chief executive officer of the company.

Woods is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he earned a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering.

He also holds a master’s of business administration degree from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Larry Merlo, CEO of CVS Health

Larry Merlo is President and chief executive officer of CVS Health and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy.

Warren E. Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren E. Buffett is the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to study business for two years.

He then transferred to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and Buffett graduated from the university with a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration.

Buffett later attended Columbia University, where he earned a master’s of science in economics.

David Wichmann, CEO of UnitedHealth Group

David Wichmann is the chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group. David Scott Wichmann received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Illinois State University.

Brian S. Tyler, CEO of McKesson Corporation

Brian S. Tyler, Ph.D. is the chief executive officer of McKesson Corporation.

Tyler earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and graduated with high honors from the University of California Santa Cruz.

He then earned his Ph.D. and master’s degree from the University of Chicago, Department of Economics where he studied under a grant from the National Science Foundation. His specialisations included industrial organisation, labour economics, and public finance and project evaluation.

Randall L. Stephenson, CEO of AT&T

Randall L. Stephenson is the chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. Randall L. Stephenson is the chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc.

Stephenson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master’s in accounting from the University of Oklahoma.

Steven H. Collis, CEO of AmerisourceBergen

Steven H. Collis is the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of AmerisourceBergen Corporation.

Collis received an undergraduate degree, a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.