They, Sir, Have The Boorish Manners of A Yale Man

USA Today ran a cover story Thursday about how companies these days are less likely than they used to be to hire CEOs with Ivy League educations.

A study by executive search firm Spence Stuart found that the percentage of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies who were educated at Ivy League schools declined from 16% in 1998 to 11% in 2004. . . In 2005 there have been 24 new CEOs named to run Fortune 1000 companies according to public relations firm Burston-Marsteller. USA Today found only one, Corning’s soon-to-be-CEO Wellington Weekes with an Ivy League degree, a Harvard MBA (’87).

My favorite quote in the article comes from Weeks, commenting on the value Harvard provides to the economy in general:

I’ve yet to see the study that proves that Harvard creates value.

So why would companies be less likely to bring in Ivy Leaguers to their top spots? USA today lists the following reasons throughout the article:

- A “sense of entitlement” of Ivy Leaguers
- A strong focus on ethics at non-Ivy League schools
- The ability of non-Ivy Leaguers to relate to people of different backgrounds
- Ivy League graduates focus on higher starting paychecks outside of industry in areas such as investment banking

Entitlement, lack of ethics, aloofness, and greed? That certainly doesn’t sound like the Ivy League guys that I’ve met.