W-26: Educational, Gender, and Age Diversity in the Corporate Leadership of Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Companies

Poster Presenter

Michael Severo

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Medical Affairs
Novartis Oncology/Rutgers University
United States

Objectives

Generate a benchmark of diversity in the corporate leadership of major pharmaceutical companies according to the 2017 Fortune 500 list.

Method

Obtained a listing of 11 major pharmaceutical corporations according to the 2017 Fortune 500 list and determined the gender, approximate age, and educational background of all executive committee members based on public records via Bloomberg, Reuters, LinkedIn, and corporate websites.

Results

The following data was collected for all executive committee members when available: title, age, gender, post-secondary education (including bachelors, masters, and other advanced degrees; with school and year of completion, when publicly available), years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and years of experience at their current company. The mean age and median age of the 111 executive committee members is 55 years old, with 75 members under the age of 60, 15 members age 60 and over, and 21 members with an unknown age. In the 11 pharmaceutical companies, 22% (24) of members are female and 78% (87) are male, with 1 female CEO and 10 male CEOs. All but one member have a 4-year bachelor's degree, with 69% (77) having advanced degrees. 25% (28) of members have MBAs, 13.5% (15) have MDs and DVMs, 17% (19) have JDs, 13.5% (15) have PhDs. Further analysis to be performed to determine comparative relationships and trends between each of these variables and the roles held by each functional area (i.e. age of CEO, educational background of R&D heads, gender of HR leadership, etc.).

Conclusion

This study can be used to examine the current educational, age, and gender diversity and make-up of pharmaceutical corporate leadership. This benchmark is especially important for drawing comparisons between the pharmaceutical industry and other major industries that may or may not be directly involved in healthcare. Diversity in corporate leadership is an increasingly important topic, as research has demonstrated a correlation between executive board diversity and annual revenue. Additionally, mandated corporate diversity has become an increasingly prevalent political topic in the United States, as California has passed legislation requiring all publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to include at least one woman on their corporate board. By assessing the current status of corporate diversity within the pharmaceutical industry, we can identify key markers and trends in a business that impacts the lives of patients and practitioners across the world.