55% of FTSE 100 chiefs have a background in finance or accounting. 15% come from marketing; 14% technology. The best industries for working through the ranks are retail and hospitality, where around 21% of bosses started out in lowly roles.

Education
The majority of CEOs have at least one university degree; more than a quarter have an MBA or PhD. The number of Oxbridge graduates has fallen from 21% in 2012 to 18%.

Age and sex
The average age is 55. The oldest FTSE 100 CEO today is 71; the youngest is 40. Just six out of 100 of Britain’s top bosses are women.

Tenure
Promoting from within is out of style: some 70% of CEOs moved to their role from another organisation. Once at the top, “make yourself comfortable” – the average tenure is five years and three months.

Nationality
More than 20 nationalities are represented, but 60% of bosses are British.
(Stats by recruiter Robert Half , written up by Emma Haslett in City AM.)

What concerns me about this profile, aside from the very small numbers of women, are the number of accountants and financiers who run big companies. I have nothing against accountants. They are without exception personable, clever, amusing people with good mathematics, one hopes. What is there to dislike about them? Some of my best friends are, or were, accountants until they took up cooking or flower arranging.

The problem comes if they have no expertise or experience (or particular interest in) customers or sales, because the natural tendency in times of company stress is to look at the figures and trim. Instead, what is needed are clever ideas to boost sales and profits, charismatic leadership, bucking the trend, getting the sales force re-motivated. There are too many bureaucratised, systematised, boring to work for, and out of touch with the market corporations. And the accountant bosses have been to business schools which are hopeless on sales and not too bright, I discovered, on man management. But he with the key to the safe and the balance sheet will have his way.