Pioneering universities: the institutions that produce the most CEOs and founders around the world

Even the most successful CEOs and founders had to start somewhere, so here at Dojo we wanted to discover which universities around the world laid the groundwork for these people to reach the heights they are now at. 

To find these institutions, Dojo used Crunchbase data to analyse the profiles of over 63,750 entrepreneurs from around the world to reveal where they went to university. We also looked at which courses they studied while there, and how successful their companies have been since they graduated. Once we had collected this data, we had all we needed to shortlist the most successful universities for both male and female CEOs and founders.

The most successful universities for CEOs and founders overall 

So which universities around the world have produced the most successful business people? 

To find out which universities had the most prestigious alumni we used Crunchbase, a platform that profiles entrepreneurs and companies, to find out which academic institutions were the most commonly listed in the world’s most successful business peoples’ profiles. 

After we’d scoured the platform and found the top 50 most commonly occurring universities, we used Crunchbase’s ‘CB Rank’ metric to find the top 50 ranking alumni from each of those universities. This gave us a list of 2,500 of the world’s most successful business people. We then looked at the split between male and female-identifying alumni to find out which universities were home to the most successful entrepreneurs from each self-identifying gender. 

So without further ado, these are the schools across the globe that boast the most entrepreneurial alumni… 

The top 10 most successful universities for CEOs and founders

1. Carnegie Mellon University

The private research university based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1900 when the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research merged. 

Of the 50 highest ranking individuals profiled on Crunchbase for this university, 38 now hold the position of CEO or Founder. This means that 76% hold these high profile positions in business across the world, making Carnegie Mellon the most prevalent university for producing CEOs and Founders.

The school is known for its computer science programme but is also highly regarded for the arts, with notable alumni featuring pop culture icon and artist Andy Warhol, alongside Pose star and Tony Award winning actor, singer and author Billy Porter. 

2. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT)

Bombay’s IIT specialises in engineering and architecture, where it offers over 80 courses across both subjects. In the 2021 NIRF ranking - a scoring framework that grades Indian universities - IIT Bombay achieved a prestigious podium place, coming in 3rd overall. According to Crunchbase, out of IIT Bombay’s most influential 50 alumni, 36 now hold the role of Founders and CEOs, a whopping 72%.

Notable alumni, fondly known as IITians, include the new CEO of Twitter, ​​Parag Agrawal and Parul Gupta, the Co-founder and President of Springboard, a learning platform.

3. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Credit: London School of Economics

The London School of Economics is well known for its pervasive alumni network, including a myriad of famous personalities across business and the arts including journalist, television presenter and founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, Martin Lewis, Mick Jagger and David Attenborough. 

A significant 72% of LSE’s top entrepreneurial alumni were CEOs or Founders, equating to a total of 36 individuals in high profile roles out of the 50 we reviewed. Not least counted in these ranks are the school’s political proteges. Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission are among those who partook in education by one of London’s most astute universities. 

4. McGill University

One of Canada’s finest, McGill ranked in 27th place in the Best Global Universities according to the QS World University Rankings® this year. An impressive 70% of the school’s alumni hold CEO and Founder roles in business across the world. Notable alumni include multiple Nobel Prize winners such as Jack Szostak, who was the co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine and responsible for uncovering how the body protects the chromosomes which contain vital genetic code.

5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

When it comes to engineering and business, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is extremely highly rated in the US. Out of the top 50 alumni we analysed at this university, 35 of the entrepreneurs held the role of CEO or Founder, a whopping 76%. The co-founder and current CEO of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman, is one of these alumni, demonstrating the calibre of business-person this college can produce. 

The most successful universities for male CEOs and founders

Some universities have high success rates for their alumni, but a fairly uneven spread of this success across genders. We wanted to split the data into two, to find out which universities have created the most male and female CEOs and founders - and how the two genders fare against each other in these universities. These are the institutions that have the largest number of male founder and CEO alumni compared to their female counterparts.

1. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

50 of the entrepreneurs we analysed hailed from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and 98% of these entrepreneurs were male. However, the number of female students at the university is very low compared to male: only around 2,000 students are female of the 10,000 students studying there in total. As a result, the share of female CEOs and founders coming from the university is bound to be much lower than male. One of the notable alumni from this institution is Nakul Aggarwal, co-founder and CTO of BrowserStack, a website testing platform.   

2. Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University, while it produces the second highest number of CEOs and founders, has a very low percentage of women in this number. Only 2% of these entrepreneurs are female, and while the number of female students at this institution is rising year by year, the disparity is still quite dramatic. As a result, the majority of CEOs and founders from this university are majority male - including Shachar Bialick, founder and CEO of innovative banking platform Curve. 

3. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, only has 4% female CEOs and founders in the share of entrepreneurs we analysed who attended the institution: 50 in total. The rest are male, showing a large disparity between the genders at this particular university. It is a good university, however, with four Nobel Laureates associated with it, and some impressive individuals coming out of it. One of Technion’s most successful alumni is female: Yael Vizel is the CEO and co-founder of Zeekit, an interactive shopping app that was recently acquired by Walmart for no less than $200 million.

4. University of Maryland

Despite the University of Maryland having a near even split of male and female students, only 4% of the entrepreneurs we analysed who went to this university were female. The university has a large business school, and the institution as a whole ranks at #43 in the world according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The founder and CEO of SquareSpace, Anthony Casalena, is one of the most notable University of Maryland alumni.

5. University of Waterloo

In 2018, the University of Waterloo in Canada ranks 19th in the world for hospitality and leisure studies, 31st in the world for computer science and information systems and 39th in the world for mathematics. It’s not surprising, then, that many alumni went on to become founders and CEOs of their own companies - such as Peter Szulczewski, CEO of online retailer Wish. However, only 4% of those CEOs and founders in our findings are female, despite it being a fairly even split between genders of students. 

The best universities for female CEOs and founders

There are many universities that have slightly more even splits between genders when it comes to the CEOs and founders that hailed from them. While still not an even split, these are the universities that have a larger share of female founders and CEOs in their entrepreneur alumni.

1. Columbia University

Ivy League college Columbia University has the largest number of female CEOs and founders on our list. Of the entrepreneurs we analysed that went to this university, 22% are female. The university is also the home of the Pulitzer Prize, so the university clearly has high standards - and the alumni live up to them. Katie Stanton is the founder of Moxxie Ventures, a business which supports other founders through investment and consulting. The business places a large focus on supporting women-founded businesses, so Stanton’s education is leading to some great things.

2. Brown University

One of the most popular majors at Brown University is computer science and economics, giving students there a great grounding for starting their own businesses. Of the entrepreneurs we analysed, 18% of Brown alumni were female, making it the university producing the second largest number of female CEOs and founders. For example, Acrew Capital, a venture capital firm, was co-founded by two female Brown alumni: Lauren Kolodny and Theresia Gouw.

3. New York University

New York University (more commonly known as NYU) is consistently ranked among the best universities in the world - and it also has one of the largest percentages of female alumni who have gone on to become CEOs and founders, at 18%. Ariel Kaye is one of them, becoming the founder and CEO of Parachute Home Inc. after graduating in 2006 and moving onto a masters at The New School in New York. 

4. Cornell University

Cornell University is known for awarding the world’s first journalism degree, the country’s first veterinary medicine degree and the first doctorates in electrical and industrial engineering. It’s clearly used to leading the way and innovating, and its alumni are no different. 16% of those we analysed were female, one of which being Miki Agrawal who founded TUSHY, offering a brand new take on bidets.

5. Princeton University

Being an Ivy League institution, Princeton University is well known around the world for offering a great quality of education. As well as this, the university also has one of the biggest percentages of female alumni who have gone on to found or be the CEO of a business: 16%, to be exact. One of these women is Danielle Cohen-Shohet, co-founder and CEO of GlossGenius, an appointment management and scheduling system for US based spas and salons.

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Methodology

Dojo used Crunchbase data to analyse the profiles of over 63,750 entrepreneurs from around the world to reveal where they went to university. We also looked at which courses they studied while there, and how successful their companies have been since they graduated. Once we had collected this data, we had all we needed to shortlist the most successful universities for both male and female CEOs and founders. 

More specifically, Crunchbase lists the role and academic institution attended by the world's most successful entrepreneurs and business people. The platform also allows users to sort by university attended by individuals profiled on the site. We scraped the role and institution data for the top universities attended by those listed on Crunchbase. Once we had a list of the most commonly occurring universities, we then looked at the top 50 alumni from each of the top 50 universities based on the number of founders and CEOs they've produced. This was to find out how many CEOs and founders each university produced according to Crunchbase.