Australia’s ‘forgotten demographic’, Generation X, has also quietly taken over the running of the country from the last of the Baby Boomers in the last 12 months, with the average age of our corporate leaders now 54, confirming the torch has passed to a new generation of leaders.

The University of NSW has emerged as the country’s ‘Power University’, educating more corporate leaders than any other, beating out the established ‘sandstone’ institutions, and global icons like Harvard, Oxford, Yale and Stanford.

Apollo Communications CEO, Adam Connolly, said the purpose of the study was to provide an annual snapshot of the corporate leadership characteristics of the top 50 ASX-listed companies, and to gauge whether these same features are aligned – or misaligned – with the expectations and values of the average Australian.

“The Apollo Communications Top 50 CEO Report is the most detailed study of its kind ever undertaken in Australia, unmasking the pathways to success for the country’s most powerful business elite,” Mr Connolly said.

“What it shows is that studying science at university is the most popular way to become a top Australian CEO, with 12 of our top 50 corporate leaders having chosen that path over more established degrees like business or law.

“Science graduates include Alan Joyce (QANTAS), Andrew Mackenzie (BHP), Patrick Regan (QBE), Steven Cain (Coles), Francesco de Ferrari (AMP), Graham Chipchase (Brambles), Julian Segal (Caltex), Jack Truong (James Hardie), Peter Botten (Oil Search), Mark Steinert (Stockland), Scott Charlton (Transurban) and Ron Delia (Amcor).

“Ironically, only two of the Top 50 CEOs, Steve Johnston of Suncorp and Graham Kerr of South32, competed a Bachelor of Business degree.”

Recent crises in the banking, broadcast and aged care sectors have clearly had an impact on community expectations of our most powerful CEOs.

“The number one trait that customers and shareholders want to see in our CEOs is ethical and trustworthy behaviour, rather than traditional measures of performance like company profitability,” Mr Connolly said.

“Only 13 per cent of Australians believe our CEOs are trustworthy, helping explain why 60 per cent believe CEOs should be subject to more regulation.

“Fundamentally, there appears to be a disconnect between what the community expects from our CEOs and what the public perceives they are doing.

“In short, our top corporate leaders have a trust problem.

“Our corporate leaders need to understand they have to become the Chief Ethics Officer (CEO) of their organisations if they want to succeed in the future.”

Mr Connolly said that almost half of Australia’s most powerful corporate leaders born overseas, compared with just 3 per cent of the top 500 publicly listed companies in the United States.

“Of Australia’s 24 foreign-born CEO in our Top 50, nine are from the UK, four from the US, three from South Africa, two from New Zealand and one each from Vietnam, Columbia, India, France and Ireland.

“This suggests that equality of opportunity for people from different ethnic backgrounds is alive and well in Australia, compared to the world’s largest economy.

“Irrespective of country of birth, 80 per cent of CEOs have worked overseas at some point in their careers, confirming that global experience is highly valued by Boards, even if it is largely seen as irrelevant by customers.

“Loyalty also pays, with two-thirds of Australia’s top 50 CEOs promoted internally, rather than being appointed from outside.”

Key findings (CEO characteristics):

• HIGH SCHOOLS REMAIN A VIABLE PATHWAY – Five of our Top 50 CEOs only have a high school qualification. They include Peter Harmer (IAG), Trevor Croker (Aristocrat Leisure), Stuart Irving (Computershare), Gregory Goodman (Goodman Group) and Bob Johnston (GPT Group). This suggests that while tertiary education is important, solid work experience in itself remains a viable option to the top.
• POWER AGE – Generation X now runs corporate Australia, having quietly taken over from the Baby Boomer generation in the last 12 months. The average ‘Power Age’ of our top 50 CEOs is 54 years old (born in 1965), compared with 58 in the United States. The youngest is Coles’ Steven Cain at 40, and the oldest is Sonic Healthcare’s Dr Colin Goldschmidt at 64. Four of our top 50 CEOs are aged 54: Shayne Elliott (ANZ Bank), Andrew Penn (Telstra), Scott Charlton (Transurban) and Brad Banducci (Woolworths). This creeping generational power transfer is also evident in the political world where every Head of Government in Australia is now a member of Generation X. The torch has certainly passed to a new generation of Australians.

• MULTICULTURISM WORKS – Foreign-born CEOs include Italy’s Francesco de Ferrari (AMP), New Zealand’s Shayne Elliott (ANZ), Vietnam’s Jack Truong (James Hardie), India’s Sandeep Biswas (Newcrest Mining), Columbia’s Alberto Calderon (Orica), and South Africa’s Brad Banducci (Woolworths).

• LOYALTY PAYS with two-thirds of Australia’s top 50 CEOs being internal appointments, proving that Board directors prefer to appoint someone they already know than run the risk of failure with an outsider.
• AUSTRALIA’S POWER UNIVERSITY is the University of NSW, which educated more top CEOs than any other at under-graduate level, while Macquarie University is the most favoured choice for post-graduate study. UNSW graduates include Brett Redman (AGL), Andrew Harding (Aurizon), Matt Comyn (CBA), Shemara Wikramanayake (Macquarie) and Craig McNally (Ramsay Health Care).
• THE CORPORATE POWER DEGREE is Science which was the joint most popular pathway for Australia’s top CEOs, along with Commerce, followed by No degree, Law, Economics, Engineering, Arts, Other, Business, Medicine and then Psychology.
• SOCIAL MEDIA remains a scary concept for many CEOs, with 34 per cent having no presence on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, despite it being a popular communications choice for many of their customers.

Key findings (Community expectations):

• ETHICS – The number one characteristic Australians rate CEOs on is their ethics and trustworthiness. This outweighs traditional measures of performance, including company profitability and the subsequent returns to investors.
• ACCOUNTABILITY – more than half (56 per cent) of all consumers believe the CEO and his/her management team should ultimately be accountable for the leadership of an organisation, compared to 44 per cent who believe it should be the Board of Directors. However, when a company has a crisis, the Australian community is unforgiving. A clear 63 per cent of Australians believe both the Chair and CEO should resign, with 15 per cent believing the sword should fall on the CEO only, and eight per cent believing it should fall on the Chair. A sizeable minority of 14 per cent believe neither should have to go.
• REGULATION – Corporate Australia’s trust problem may help explain why a significant 60 per cent of Australians believe CEOs should be subject to more regulation in their jobs, with only five per cent of consumers believing our corporate leaders are ‘very accountable’.
• TENURE – Almost half of all Australians believe the current tenure of Australian CEOs is ‘about right’ with 23 per cent believing it is ‘too short’ and 13 per cent believing it is ‘too long’.