Surprisingly, Ivy League graduates do not dominate the top fifty Fortune 500 Companies. When measuring CEO undergraduate education, the University of Texas system has just as much representation as Harvard: a total of 3 CEOs. What does this mean for students? An elite career doesn’t always stem from an elite education.
| COMPANY | CEO | COLLEGE |
| Exxon Mobil | Rex Tillerson | University of Texas at Austin |
| Wal-Mart Stores | H. Lee Scott | Pittsburg State University in Kansas |
| General Motors | Rick Wagoner | Duke University |
| Chevron | David O'Reilly | University College, Dublin |
| Ford Motor | William Ford, Jr. | Princeton University |
| ConocoPhillips | James Mulva | University of Texas |
| General Electric | Jeff Immelt | Dartmouth College |
| Citigroup | Charles Prince | University of Southern California |
| American Intl. Group (AIG) | Martin J. Sullivan | N/A |
| Intl. Business Machines | Samuel J. Palmisano | Johns Hopkins University |
| Hewlett-Packard | Mark V. Hurd | Baylor University |
| Bank of America Corp. | Ken Lewis | Georgia State University |
| Berkshire Hathaway | Warren Buffett | University of Nebraska |
| Home Depot | Robert Nardelli | Western Illinois University |
| Valero Energy | Bill Klesse | University of Dayton |
| McKesson | John Hammergren | University of Minnesota |
| J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. | Jamie Dimon | Tufts University |
| Verizon Communications | Ivan Seidenberg | City University of New York |
| Cardinal Health | Robert D. Walter | Ohio University |
| Altria Group | Louis Camilleri | University of Lausanne (Switzerland) |
| Kroger | David Dillon | University of Kansas |
| State Farm Insurance Cos. | Edward B. Rust, Jr. | Illinois Wesleyan University |
| Marathon Oil | Clarence Cazalot, Jr. | Louisiana State University |
| Procter & Gamble | Alan G. Lafley | Hamilton College |
| Dell | Kevin Rollins | Brigham Young University |
| Boeing | W. James McNerney, Jr. | Yale University |
| AmerisourceBergen | R. David Yost | U.S. Air Force Academy |
| Costco Wholesale | James Sinegal | San Diego State University |
| Target | Robert Ulrich | University of Minnesota |
| Morgan Stanley | John J. Mack | Duke University |
| Pfizer | Henry A. McKinnell | University of British Columbia |
| Johnson & Johnson | William Weldon | Quinnipiac College |
| Sears Holdings | Alan J. Lacy | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Merrill Lynch | Stan O'Neal | Kettering University |
| MetLife | Rob Henrikson | University of Pennsylvania |
| Dow Chemical | Andrew N. Liveris | University of Queensland |
| UnitedHealth Group | William W. McGuire | University of Texas at Austin |
| Wellpoint | Larry C. Glasscock | Cleveland State University |
| AT&T | Edward Whitacre, Jr. | Texas Tech University |
| Time Warner | Richard D. Parsons | University of Hawaii |
| Goldman Sachs Group | Lloyd Blankfein | Harvard University |
| Lowe's | Robert Niblock | University of North Carolina |
| United Technologies | George David | Harvard University |
| United Parcel Service | Michael L. Eskew | Purdue University |
| Walgreen | David Bernauer | North Dakota State University |
| Wells Fargo | Richard Kovacevich | Stanford University |
| Albertson's | Larry Johnston | Stetson University |
| Microsoft | Steve Ballmer | Harvard University |
| Intel | Paul Otellini | University of San Francisco |
| Safeway | Steven Burd | Carroll College |