REPORT: U-M Has Most Grads Serving as CEOs of Fortune 100 Companies

Fortune Magazine recently released their 64th annual report ranking of the world’s largest companies, and an examination of the educational backgrounds of the CEOs of those companies found that more hold degrees from U-M than any other university.

Together, Fortune 500 Companies account for two-thirds of the U.S. GDP and employ 28.2 million people — the leaders of these companies have tremendous influence in the global economy, and a lot of them are Michigan grads.

An analysis of the top 100 companies on the list by US News and World Report found that four CEOs received their undergraduate degrees from U-M, the most of any university represented on the list (Texas A&M University and Cornell also had four grads on the list).

The U-M grads leading the world’s biggest companies are:

Tom Wilson, BBA ‘79, is chairman and CEO of The Allstate Corporation, a role he’s held since 2007. He’s been with Allstate for more than 20 years in a variety of executive roles.

Timothy Sloan, MBA ‘84, was elected chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Company and a member of the board of directors in October 2016. He became president in November 2015.

Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin, is the CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Page earned a bachelor's in engineering with a concentration in computer engineering from U-M in 1995.

Ford’s CEO is Jim Hackett, BGS ‘77. Before he was named CEO in May 2017, he spent 20 years with furniture company Steelcase, served on the board at Ford, and did a brief stint as interim athletic director at U-M.