Where The Top-Fundraising CEOs Went To School

The buck stops on the CEOs’ desk — and that can make or break a company.

The difference between success and failure for any organization largely depends on the drive of its leadership. And with few exceptions, no person in a company is more important than the chief executive officer.

The best measure of a CEO’s effectiveness: how well they press palms and bring in the bucks.

Source: Switch on Business

TOP FUNDRAISING CEO: BROADCOM LIMITED’S HOCK TAN

Data analysts at startup support platform Switch On Business used corporate fundraising data from Crunchbase to uncover past and present CEOs who have secured the most funding during their tenure in companies headquartered across America. Then they analyzed each CEO’s academic background.

They found that the most heavily funded CEOs claimed Harvard as their alma mater, at 10, with Wharton second (eight CEOs) and Stanford and MIT tied for third (six each). Overall, the CEO who has secured the most funding for any U.S. company is Hock Tan, who has raised $100 billion for Broadcom Limited in California.

TOP FUNDRAISER AMONG TECH CEOs: VERIZON’S LOWELL McADAM

Switch On Business also looked specifically at CEOs of tech companies, finding that while Tan remains the nation’s top fundraiser in this context, New York’s top earner switches from Pfizer’s Albert Bourla to Verizon’s Lowell C. McAdam.

Still, New York remains in second place since McAdam has raised $28.9 billion for the telecoms and internet company — barely $2 billion less than Bourla at Pfizer. McAdam left his role at Verizon in 2018. While there, he doubled down on wireless and 5G technology while also seeming to contradict himself regarding his investment intentions in traditional media.

But this was, in fact, exemplary of his flexible, problem-solving approach: “Hold up a problem like a diamond and look at it from different perspectives,” he said to WeSalute. “The problem may seem insurmountable from one perspective, but if you flip it around, you may find it to be solvable. I use this technique at Verizon Wireless where we look at a lot of problems with our senior management team and turn them into opportunities.”