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Posted on Fri, Aug 30, 2013 : 10:33 a.m.

University of Michigan a top public school for powerful tech CEOs

By Ben Freed

The odds of becoming CEO of a technology company worth more than $1 billion are not high.

However, if you do have your sights set on leading a high-tech powerhouse, there’s no better public university to attend than the University of Michigan, according to a new ranking from Bloomberg News.

dickcostolocommence.jpg

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo speaks to University of Michigan students at the 2013 spring commencement ceremony.

Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com

Michigan ranked tied for fourth overall with the University of California at Berkley, following Princeton, Harvard and Stanford. The rankings were made by counting the number of alumni or attendees of schools who are currently chief executive officers of technology companies with market capitalizations over $1 billion.

Bloomberg noted Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky and Steve Singh, who runs travel expenses company Concur Technologies, among the six Michigan attendees who helped establish Michigan’s place on the list.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who spoke at U-M's spring commencement, could move Michigan up to second place on the list once the company’s initial public offering occurs, likely later this year. Twitter is expected to have an initial market capitalization of more than $10 billion.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

Comments

Eduard Copely

Sat, Aug 31, 2013 : 4:21 p.m.

blue85, I would never. Ever go for this.

Craig Haley

Sat, Aug 31, 2013 : 1:45 p.m.

Why wasn't Larry Page (CEO of Google) included for Michigan?

Eduard Copely

Fri, Aug 30, 2013 : 6:50 p.m.

Regarding Twitter's public offering, just remember how well Facebook did. Not. Wall Street may be greedy, but definitely not stupid.

blue85

Fri, Aug 30, 2013 : 10:59 p.m.

Eduard, I suggest you short a modest 100,000 shares at the IPO...it is easy money, you should make a mint. Come back and let us know how you did.

Dog Guy

Fri, Aug 30, 2013 : 6:19 p.m.

Wherever are we going to display all these top-ten awards?!

David Barnett

Fri, Aug 30, 2013 : 7:40 p.m.

The old Blimpie Burger building