Harvard comes out on top, followed by the University of Tokyo and Stanford. Those are the schools that the greatest number of CEOS among the world’s top 500 corporations, have on their résumés. Twenty-five of the 500 went to Harvard, 13 went to the University of Tokyo and 11 to Stanford. Times Higher Education (THE), a London magazine that tracks the higher education market, combed through the list of the world’s 500 top CEOS and examined the educational background of each boss. It produced a list of CEOs and their degrees. Read the complete list here.

Though the top schools should be proud of their popularity among bosses, to me what’s most striking about the list is the breadth of schools it covers. Some 100 institutions make up the alma maters of the top 500 bosses. Examples from the world’s three biggest companies:  Peter Voser, chief of Royal Dutch Shell, got his Bachelor’s in business administration from Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Michael T. Duke of Wal-Mart Stores graduated from Georgia Tech in industrial engineering. Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil, went to the University of Texas at Austin and earned a B.A. in civil engineering. None of the three got a degree beyond a Bachelor’s.

When it comes to the CEO’s job, it seems that experience, track record and expertise trump academic pedigree. Though everyone on the current list graduated from college, in the past, two of the world’s most successful CEOs, Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs, famously dropped out of college (Harvard for Gates, Reed College for Jobs). Though Facebook’s revenues don’t approach the top 500 list, its billionaire CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is another famous college drop-out (Harvard).

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