Behind every great company, there is an equally great and successful CEO behind it. Below, we'll be listing some of America's CEOs and the courses they studied while in school. We hope this inspires you in some way.
- MARK PARKER, CEO NIKE
Studied: Political Science from Penn State University.
A native of Poughkeepsie, New York, Mark Parker also ran track at Penn State. He started his career at Nike as a shoe designer. Before becoming CEO, he held positions like the Vice President of Consumer Product , Vice President of Global Footwear and Co-President of the Nike brand.
- TIM COOK, CEO APPLE
Studied: B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University; MBA from Duke University.
Cook was born in Mobile, Alabama, He had prior stints as North American fulfillment Director at IBM
and COO at Intelligent Electronics. He was also Vice-President of Corporate Materials at the Compaq Computer Corporation.
- SATYA NADELLA, CEO MICROSOFT
Studied: B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology; M.S. degree in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Nadella, who hails from Hyderabad in India, has held many positions at Microsoft, including Executive Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise, and Senior Vice-President of Research and Development for the Online Services Division. He has also worked at Sun Microsystems as a member of the technology staff.
- HOWARD SHULTZ, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, STARBUCKS
Studied: B.A. in Communications at Northern Michigan University.
Shultz hails from Brooklyn, New York. He attended college on a football scholarship. His first job at Starbucks was as Director of Retail Operations and after three years, he left the company and started his own coffee bar II Gionale. Two years after that, he purchased Starbucks and merged it with II Gionale. He was previously the CEO of Starbucks but resigned in April 2017 and became Executive Chairman. Kevin Johnson took over in his stead as CEO.
- LARRY PAGE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO GOOGLE
Studied: B.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Larry Page was born in East Lansing, Michigan. He co-founded Google, the world's most popular search engine, as a research project while in school at Stanford. The term google refers to the mathematical term "googol"–which is the number one followed by 100 zeros.
After rolling out Google parent company Alphabet in October 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring, Page is now the CEO of Alphabet, while Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google.
- WARREN BUFFET, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, BERKSHIRE, HATHAWAY
Studied: B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; MBA in Economics from Columbia Business School.
Investing is a family trait Warren Buffet inherited from his father, a stockbroker and U.S. congressman, in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. At the age of 11, Buffet made his first investment, and by the age of 13 he was selling horse racing tip sheets and operating a paper delivery service. Today, he is one of the richest men in the world.
- DOUG MCMILLON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, WAL-MART STORES
Studied: B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas; MBA in Finance from the University of Tulsa.
Doug McMillon, is a native of Jonesboro, Arkansas. He began his career at Walmart as a summer associate at the company's distribution center. He was also an assistant manager and a buyer trainee. Before he took the reins at Walmart Stores, McMillon was President and CEO of Sam's Club, and also President and then CEO of Walmart International.
- JOHN S. WATSON, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CHEVRON
Studied: B.A. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis; MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Watson, is a native of California. He was initially hired as a fina