Yesterday I asked are executives out of touch with IT industry trends.
To figure out the answer to that question, I had a look at the backgrounds of the ASX20‘s CEOs. It’s difficult to draw a conclusion from the results.
| ASX 20 CEO backgrounds | |||
| Company | CEO | Industry background | Degree |
| AMP | Craig Dunn | Financial services | BComm |
| ANZ Bank | Michael Smith | Financial services | Economist |
| BHP Billiton | Andrew MacKenzie | Mining | Phd in Chemistry |
| Brambles | Tom Gorman | Finance | Economist |
| Commonwealth Bank | Ian Narev | Consulting | Law Degree |
| CSL | Brian McNamee | Medicine | surgeon |
| Macquarie Group Ltd | Nicholas Moore | Investment banking | lawyer |
| National Australia Bank Ltd | Cameron Clyne | investment banking | arts/economics |
| Newcrest Mining Ltd | Greg Robinson | finance | BSci Geology |
| Origin Energy | Grant A. King | Energy industry | Civil Engineer |
| QBE Insurance Group Ltd | John Neal | finance | |
| Rio Tinto Ltd | Sam Walsh | mining | BComm |
| Santos Ltd | David Knox | Oil and Gas | BEng (mech) |
| Suncorp Group Ltd | Patrick Snowball | Finance industry | Law, LLD |
| Telstra Corp Ltd | David Thodey | IT/Telecoms | BA (anthropology) |
| Wesfarmers Ltd | Richard Goyder | Diversified industrial | BComm |
| Westfield Group | Peter & Stephen Lowy | Investment banking | BComm |
| Westpac Banking Corp | Gail Kelly | Financial services | BA |
| Woodside Petroleum Ltd | Peter J Coleman? | Oil and Gas | BEng |
| Woolworths Ltd | Grant O’Brien | Retail | Accountant |
What stands out from the list is the dominance of executives from a financial services and commerce background, although that’s hardly surprising given the weight of the banking sector in the Australian stock market.
An encouraging trend in the mining sector, the other sector highly represented in the index, is how the industry’s CEOs tend to be from a scientific or Engineering background.
Coming from a science background would tend to indicate the CEOs are probably more across technology trends than we’d think, although the compositions of the boards would probably tell us a little more about the net saviness of the corprorate sector.
That might be an exercise for the weekend.