You are here: Home / Issue 6 / NEOs & IPOs

NEOs & IPOs

October 31, 2011 By

Which schools produce executive officers at IPOs?

IPO ACTIVITY

Market turmoil in 2008 and the first half of 2009 discouraged many companies from offering their stock to the public for the first time. As the market has rebounded over the past couple of years, the SEC has seen a concomitant spike in the  number of IPO filings. Though high-profile IPOs for LinkedIn and Groupon have made headlines in 2011, 2010 actually  saw the highest number of IPO filers. The chart below shows the number of companies that filed to go public in the first  six months of each year, from 2008 to 2011.

Companies Filing for IPOs During First 6 Months of the Year

MAKE-UP OF EXECUTIVES AT IPOs

Although the story of the college- dropout-turned-IPO-millionaire is great movie material, it is still a rarity among real-life executives. The vast majority of individuals in Equilar’s study earned some type of higher degree. In 2011, Equilar tracked 122 companies, encompassing 804 executives. 70 percent of those executives disclosed some type of college degree. This does not mean that the remaining 30 percent did not go to school; their schooling was simply not disclosed in their listed biography. Further education was also a topic of interest; does an employee require a graduate degree to climb to the top rungs of the  corporate ladder? It seems to convey a slight advantage: among executives disclosing a degree, 58 percent disclosed earning a graduate degree (either a master’s or doctorate). Despite the perception that starting new companies and taking them public is a young person’s game, the average age of executives included in the study was 49. The youngest person on the list was 29 years of age (Jesse Boyd, VP Resort Operations at Peak Resorts), while the oldest person was 81 (Kelsey Boltz, Executive Chair at Neutron Energy).

 

LARGEST IPO NETWORK

Listed below are the universities that are associated with the greatest number of graduates serving as executives at  companies that filed a prospectus in the first half of 2011. The executives in the study attended a total of 379 different  schools. Stanford University (32) had the most individuals citing themselves as alumni/alumnae (undergraduate, master’s, and/or doctorate), followed by Harvard University (24), and the University of California, Berkeley (23). The hotbed for cultivating executives for IPO companies appears to be California, particularly the Silicon Valley area. Seven of the 25 most-cited schools were located in California. Illinois and New York came in second; each had three of the top 25 schools.

UNDERGRADUATES

Listed to the right are the universities that awarded the greatest number of undergraduate degrees to executives at companies that filed a prospectus in the first half of 2011. The list of individuals with an undergraduate degree  encompasses 301 different universities. Among the executives with degrees, Stanford University topped the list, with 18  alums. The University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania tied for second place, with 10 alums each.

GRADUATES WITH ADVANCED DEGREES

Listed the left are the universities with the greatest number of executives holding advanced degrees. 174 different graduate schools are represented among the 331 individuals with a listed advanced degree. Advanced degrees include both master’s and doctorates. Harvard tops the list, with 21 executives with graduate degrees. Stanford is second, with 17, and third place is claimed by Northwestern, with 14.

Filed Under: Issue 6, Special Reports Tagged With: ,