The report also shows that more than half (67%) of current CEOs rose to the top from an internal promotion and almost half (47%) have previous experience as a member of a C-suite leadership team.
"While the advancement women have made toward the CEO role has gained momentum in recent years, we still are not seeing a significant increase to the number of appointments of women to the CEO role," said
For the first time, the fifth annual Route to the Top report has been expanded from five to 13 countries to include
Additional findings from the Route to the Top 2018 report include:
- Women CEOs are still significantly unrepresented with just 1 in 20 occupying the corner office.
- Women represented only 4.9% of CEOs in the countries studied, with women accounting for 6.9% of CEOs in the U.S.
- At the bottom were
Denmark andItaly , both at 0%, andGermany , at 1.2%. - Internal promotions are still the most common route to the top.
- Across the 13 countries, 67% percent of CEOs rose to the top from an internal promotion.
- The U.S., at 84%, had the highest percentage of internally promoted CEOs, followed by
the Netherlands , at 80%, andSweden , at 70%. - Almost half of all CEOs have held other C-suite leadership roles.
Germany , at 32%, had the largest proportion of CEOs who previously served as CFOs, and the U.S., at 47%, had the largest proportion of CEOs who previously held the COO role.- Some 27% of CEOs have experience in the finance function, while 22% have general management experience.
- CEOs averaged 50 years of age at the time of their appointment.
- CEOs in the U.S. are the oldest with an average age of 52 at the time of appointment. Whereas, the greatest percentage of CEOs under 50 years of age at the time of their appointment was found in
Norway , at 64%. - Overall, internally appointed CEOs served an average of 14 years within a company before being appointed to the position.
- Fewer than three in ten CEOs hold an MBA degree.
- The proportion of chief executives who hold MBA degrees ranges from a high of 47% in
Portugal to a low of 13% inItaly . - In the U.S., the birthplace of the MBA program, 34% of CEOs hold the degree, a figure that is sharply down from 49% seven years ago.
"While paths to the top vary across countries, the results consistently find that a majority of CEOs have a functional background in finance and general management," said
Note to Editors:
Research data for the report was collected in Spring/Summer 2018.
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