ANALYSIS OF AN UNPUBLISHED DATABASE ON THE ACADEMIC FORMATION OF THE DIRECTORS OF BRAZILIAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

The social profile of firms’ top-managers is an issue that is of interest both for the social sciences, in the studies of elites, and management, which often search for links between the performance of companies and the characteristics of the individuals who run them. This article seeks to contribute to both fields of knowledge by analyzing a specific characteristic, academic education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, of an important social group, the heads of Brazilian financial institutions. For this purpose, a database on 1,016 individuals was built from information collected from their résumés published on the companies’ websites. This base comprehends 19 banks, including the five largest in the country, and 65 non-bank financial institutions. Among the main results, we can highlight the very small proportion (13%) of women; the low frequency (17%) of top-managers with graduate courses; and the concentration (79%) of degrees in three areas of knowledge (administration, economics, and engineering), in relatively few institutions – half of the degrees in only six institutions – and, even more, in educational institutions located on the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (81% of the total).

Keywords:
Elites; Corporate governance; Financial industry in Brazil; Banks in Brazil; Top-management profile