The study conducted by headhunting firm Executive Access India was reported in the Economic Times of India. Apart from naming the MBA as the most common degree for company directors, it also found that the second most popular degree was a non-MBA master’s degree (22 per cent) whilst an engineering degree came in on third place with about a fifth of board members holding such a degree.

The study which analysed 1,095 directors from 106 companies from across industries also revealed a lack of general diversity on boards in regards to education, age and region. “Moving towards diverse boards is the next stage of evolution for organisations as they face bigger challenges of disruptions going forward,” Ronesh Puri from Executive Access India, told the paper.

Looking at the average age of the top managers for example the study found little deviation. The average age of directors was found to be about 61 years. Retail, media and real estate organisations had slightly younger directors with an average age of 56 years, while pharmaceutical companies and carmakers’ directors were close to 65 years on average, according to the Indian paper. 

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