When it comes to the top schools for turning out board members at public companies, there are a couple of clear winners. A recent Equilar study using data from its BoardEdge platform uncovered the results.
The study included 2,385 board members at Equilar 500 companies with disclosed education details in their director biographies. Overall, those directors attended 741 schools, and nearly half of these institutions (362) boasted more than one director as alumni. A little less than 10% of the schools on the list (69 total) had more than 10 alumni sitting on boards. Directors with multiple degrees from different schools were counted twice, but if a director had multiple degrees from the same school, he or she was counted only once.
Harvard took the top spot among universities attended by corporate board members at the largest companies by revenue. Overall, 206 individuals currently sitting on an Equilar 500 board earned at least one degree there. That was nearly three times the amount who attended Stanford, which came in third place with 68 board members. In second place, the University of Pennsylvania—no doubt bolstered by a number of Wharton MBAs—stood well above all other schools besides Harvard, with 122 alumni serving as sitting directors at the top U.S. companies.