May 27, 2025 – Michael S. Fischer, ThinkAdvisor
The graduating class of a university represents one of the institution’s most important resources, from an academic, marketing, research, networking, knowledge transfer and fundraising perspective, according to a report released this month by Altrata, which provides intelligence on the wealthy and well-connected.
Rich, influential alumni offer their alma maters major private donations, corporate partnerships and networking opportunities for students and recent alumni, among other benefits. Nurturing and maintaining robust alumni relations can bring long-term benefits to both the university and its ever-expanding graduate pool.
The report details the estimated numbers of ultra-high-net-worth alumni at leading U.S. and non-U.S. universities, each with a net worth in excess of $30 million.
The United States is home to 17 of the top 20 global institutions ranked by ultra-wealthy alumni. For its part, the U.S. top-20 ranking is dominated by private universities, including seven of the eight Ivy League schools.
Overall, the United Kingdom has six universities in the top non-U.S. 20. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are first and second in the ranking — and rank sixth and seventh on the global top 20 list.
Of universities outside the U.S., the National University of Singapore ranks third, INSEAD business school based in France is fourth and the London School of Economics is fifth.
Researchers derived the estimated number of ultra-wealthy alumni by institution from the sum of known and confirmed (based on completed dossiers) rich alumni and estimates of those yet to be identified as ultra-wealthy. They based the number of estimated alumni on extrapolations using stratified samples of ultra-high-net-worth individuals within the Wealth-X Database that are known and confirmed as being ultra wealthy and having a degree from a particular education institution.
Some 29% of Fortune Global 500 senior executives have an MBA degree, according to the report. This rises to 33% of CEOs and 40% of chief financial officers.
Harvard Business School is the leading alma mater for these graduates, followed by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The standout business school outside the United States is INSEAD, which ranks fourth overall with 80 MBA alumni currently in senior executive roles at Fortune Global 500 companies.
See the accompanying gallery for the 15 U.S. universities ranked by the estimated number of ultra-wealthy alumni.
Read the original published article here.