Business schools love bragging rights. Higher rankings. Higher pay. Higher GMATs. Numbers matter. They exude a sense of exclusivity. The best students. The best facilities. The best opportunities. These numbers reinforce to applicants that their school is the safe choice – a faster return with a better network – worth the lost time and debt that an MBA requires.
Thing is, names matter too. In business schools, alumni names tell tales and confer credibility. They are a reminder to students that they too can someday sit in the big chair, make the final calls, and leave the world better. Who knows – their alma mater might just name building or institute after them
Accomplished, influential respected: those are three qualities you could ascribe to Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful People in Business. A new feature coming sixty years after the launch of the Fortune 500, the ranking wrestles with how to define who has amassed the most power in business, be it through their enviable financial statements, disruptive business practices, or impact on daily life.
MBA GRADS HEAVILY REPRESENTED
Technically, the “100 Most Powerful People In Business” consists of 105 names, thanks to several co-CEO pairings (including a brother-sister duo). Among these names, you’ll find 32 MBA graduates, or roughly 30% of the list. The most powerful MBA was Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, a 1997 graduate of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Looking for an advertisement for the benefits of an MBA? Nadella raked in $48 million dollars in 2023 alone. The second-highest ranked MBA grad, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, was awarded $36 million dollars in 2023, after collecting $34.5 million dollars the year before. Still, those wages pale in comparison to professional athletes. Exhibit A: Patrick Mahomes averages $52.7 million dollars a year, excluding endorsements and other revenue streams. Exhibit B: This year, LeBron James is slated to collect $48.7 million dollars.
Perhaps the M7 should add running, throwing, dribbling, and shooting to their curriculum.
Overall, Jamie Dimon reached 5th in the Fortune ranking, edging out Fuqua alum Tim Cook, who took the reins from Steve Jobs as Apple CEO in 2011. Stanford GSB’s Mary Barra and the Wharton School’s Sundar Pichai, the heads of General Motors and Alphabet respectively, also cracked the overall Top 10 at 9th and 10th. Overall, 8 members of Fortune’s Top 25 hold MBAs, including Citigroup’s Jane Fraser (Harvard Business School), Walmart’s Doug McMillon (University of Tulsa) and Starbucks’ Brian Niccol (University of Chicago’s Booth School). Amazon’s Andy Jassy, who earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997 alongside Nadella, finished 26th.
HBS HAS THE MOST MBAS ON THE FORTUNE LIST
Overall, Harvard Business School produced the highest number of leaders in the Fortune ranking with 9 graduates. The Stanford Graduate School of Business was the runner-up with 5 graduates – a number skewed by the fact that Harvard MBA class sizes are twice that of Stanford. There were three Wharton MBA alumni who made the list, along with two representatives each from the University of Chicago’s Booth School and Duke University’s Fuqua School.
Of course, there are several unexpected MBA alma maters on the list. Along with the University of Tulsa, the University of Denver and Keio University pop up on the list, courtesy of UPS’ Carol Tomé and Samsung’s Jay Y. Lee respectively. And the list doesn’t just include full-time MBA programs, either. Luxshare Precision’s Grace Wang and TIAA’s Thasunda Brown Duckett earned executive MBAs through Tsinghua University and Baylor University’s Hankamer School respectively. At the same time, The Public Investment Fund’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Progressive’s Tricia Griffith completed coursework in the Harvard Business School’s General Management and Wharton’s Advanced Management programs respectively. In the proud tradition of John F. Kennedy and Steve Ballmer, Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani – ranked 12th by Fortune – dropped out of the Stanford GSB MBA program.
While Bill Gates may not hold an MBA, his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, earned hers from Duke University’s Fuqua School, Class of 1987. Go Blue Devils!
NOT ALL WHO YOU EXPECT
The 100 Most Powerful People in Business list also features several graduates of undergraduate business programs. They include Marc Benioff (USC Marshall), Mark Cuban (Indiana Kelley), George Kurtz (Seton Hall Stillman), Jonathan Gray (Wharton School), Nicolas Hieronimus (ESSEC Business School), and Gregory Abel (University of Alberta). Abel’s boss, Warren Buffet – the Oracle of Omaha – earned his bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Nebraska. While Oracle’s Safra Catz earned a BA at Wharton, she pivoted to the dark side and collected a JD from Penn Law.
Indeed, the Fortune list includes power brokers who earned undergraduate degrees in areas like Engineering, Chemistry, History, Economics and even Agriculture. In some cases, their majors resembled little of what they would do later in life. Before leading Expedia and Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University. By the same token, Brian Chesky studied Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design before co-founding Airbnb. At Oxford, GSK’s Emma Walmsley earned her master’s in Classics and Modern Languages. Equally surprising, Abigail Johnson didn’t study high finance to prepare for leading Fidelity Investments. Instead, she earned an Art History degree as an undergrad at William Smith College before entering Harvard Business School.
While the image of the college dropout decked out in a hoodie and working out of a garage remains in vogue, many Fortune 100 leaders remained in academia long after they walked the stage to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance”. AMD’s Lisa Su and TSMC’s C.C. Wei hold PhDs from MIT and Yale respectively. And Anthropic’s Dario Amodei frames a PhD in Physics on his wall, no different than CATL’s Robin Zeng. Then there is Palantir Technologies’ Alex Karp. Not only is he armed with a law degree from Stanford, but he also returned to school to earn a PhD in Neoclassical Social Theory a decade later.
MBAs Among Fortune’s List: Clockwise from Center: Google’s Sundar Pichai; Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha; Elevance Health’s Gail Boudrearux; Fidelity Investment’s Abigail Johnson; JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon; and TIAA’s Thasunda Brown Duckett
