Why have accountants won the top FTSE 100 roles?

Nice to see that numbercrunchers have looked beyond the solar panels on their calculators, showing the wherewithal to nail down senior executive roles.

Robert Half’s survey of FTSE 100 CEOs finds that nearly half come from financial backgrounds, compared to under a third in 2008.

Accountancy Age hacks keep a close eye on the ebbs and flows of the executive job market, at the listed level. Recently, it has seemed that there have been fewer accountants appointed to CEO than in the previous couple of years when steady ships were required.

In comparison with 2008 I’m not surprised that more financially-literate execs have been appointed CEOs. But have we peaked?

You would expect that growth would see more operational, shop-floor and entrepreneurial appointments to the big boss role. Yet today’s GDP figures show that things are still very wobbly.

Fewer FDs will win the top roles, proportionally, going forward. However, with the economy in choppy waters they will continue to be a popular choice for the appointments committee.

And in all fairness, a finance qualification has always proved a good backbone for aspiring executives.

PS. I know this isn’t strictly on topic for me, what with this being a practice-related column. So sue me.