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North Carolina University Ranked Top in the World for Producing CEOs and Founders

By Alexis Zarycki
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 15: Students throw their caps in the air ahead of their graduation ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on July 15, 2014 in London, England. Students of the London College of Fashion, Management and Science and Media and Communication attended their graduation ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall today. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Founders and CEOs start somewhere, even the most successful ones. Dojo, a UK card payment provider, wanted to discover which universities laid the groundwork for these leaders to succeed.

Using Crunchbase data, experts at Dojo analyzed the profiles of over 63,750 entrepreneurs around the world to create the Pioneering University Index. They used Crunchbase’s ‘CB Rank’ metric to reveal the top 50 ranking alumni from each of the 50 most commonly occurring universities. The result was a list of 2,500 of the most successful business people in the world.

So which universities around the world have produced the most successful CEOs and founders? This North Carolina university made the top of the list. The total rankings below are out of a total of 50. You can see that full list here.

  • 31. Duke University

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 30
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 60%

    The 31st best university in the world for producing the most CEOs and founders is Duke University in North Carolina. According to Crunchbase, out of Duke’s most influential 50 alumni, 30 now hold the role of Founders and CEOs, a whopping 60%. 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.

  • The Top 10 Most Successful Universities for CEOs and Founders

  • 10. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 34
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 68%

  • 9. Tel Aviv University

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 34
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 68%

  • 8. New York University

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 34
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 68%

  • 7. INSEAD

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 34
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 68%

  • 6. University of Washington

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 35
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 70%

  • 5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 35
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 70%

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is extremely well regarded in the United States when it comes to engineering and business. Our analysis of the top 50 alumni from this university found that 35 of the entrepreneurs held the role of CEO or Founder, which is 76%. Yelp’s CEO and co-founder, Jeremy Stoppelman, is one of these alumni, demonstrating the caliber of business person this college can produce.

  • 4. McGill University

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 35
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 70%

    In this year’s QS World University Rankings®, McGill ranked 27th in the Best Global Universities ranking. 70% of the school’s alumni hold CEO and Founder roles in businesses around the world. Multiple Nobel Prize winners have graduated from the university, including Jack Szostak, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for uncovering how the body protects its chromosomes, which contain genetic code.

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

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 36
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 72%

    The London School of Economics is well known for its widespread alumni network, which includes a number of well-known figures across business and the arts, such as reporter and MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis, Mick Jagger, and David Attenborough. Of the 50 LSE alumni we reviewed, 72% were CEOs or Founders, which equates to 36 in high-profile roles. Political proteges of the school are not least among them. Annalena Baerbock, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Germany, and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, were among those who took part in education at one of London’s foremost universities.

  • 2. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT)

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 36
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 72%

    Bombay’s IIT specializes in engineering and architecture, and 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.

    IIT Bombay, together with the late Prof. R. Subrahmonia Ayyar's wife, Mrs. Parvathy Subrahmonia Ayyar, and, their...

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  • 1. Carnegie Mellon University

    No. of CEOs and Founders: 38
    % of Alumni that are CEOs/Founders: 76%

    Carnegie Mellon University ranked the best of the 50 universities analyzed, with alumni 38 now holding the position of CEO or Founder. Bombay’s Indian Institute of Technology ranked second with 36 and The London School of Economics came third with the same 36 holding the role of Founders and CEOs.

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