CSO BACK STORY - Weinreb Group

Candidacy: what makes a cso?CSO: Industry and BusinessVeteransOn average, CSOs have been with theirrespective companies for 16 years.Moreover, 86% of them were internalhires.As their roles evolve and adapt to afast-changing environment, the onecommonality in their success is a long-termunderstanding of the organization. With amajority of the CSOs having risen throughthe ranks, it is a C-suite role that requiresa deep systems grasp of the challengesspecific to the company’s sector and globalenvironment.UPS’ Scott Wicker offers the classicexample. He started with the company in1977 and has risen within the ranks bybuilding on his engineering training withan understanding of the operations andchallenges of the freight and packagingsector. Today, he reports to the ChiefOperating Officer and manages thecompany’s Sustainability Report, humanrights, supply chain, compliance, as wellas environmental sustainability.Peter Graf presents a similar track. Afterjoining SAP in 1996, Graf worked on avariety of roles before being named CSOin 2009. His strengths: An engineeringbackground, a systems approach, and adeep understanding of SAP’s organizationalstructure, internal challenges and externalopportunities.Education: The PerfectDegree for a Career inSustainabilityOkay, that’s a teaser. There really remainsno one clear degree that guarantees asuccessful career path in sustainability,primarily because of the intense need forprofessionals who understand businessoperations and strategy, as well asenvironmental and social complexities.Of the 29 CSOs we surveyed, three holdPhDs, 17 have master’s degrees astheir highest level of education, with theremaining nine holding bachelor’s degrees.Of those with master’s degrees, we founda diverse group of lawyers, public andgovernment affairs experts, and MBAs(See below).Furthest Educational DegreeMasters: 59%Bachelors: 31%PhD: 10%We broke down the Master’s degree furtherand found the following:DegreeScience 7Business 5Law 5Public Policy 3Communications 1Grand Total 21When we began our research, we expectedmore CSOs to hold MBAs because ofthe speed business schools have shown(compared to other professional degreeprograms) in developing sustainabilityspecializations.As it turns out, however, an MBA does nottranslate into the CSO title. According to ourresearch, business experience and industryknowledge weigh much more heavily in theCSO selection than educational degree.For Graf, sustainability came by way ofengineering and learning how to createand innovate. For Kathrin Winkler, CSOof EMC, however, the path began witha bachelor’s degree in pre-med and alifelong passion for systems. “I’ve alwayshad an innate curiosity for understandingconnections and interdependencies. Somepeoples’ curiosity leads them to take thingsapart; mine was always about putting themtogether,” she says.15Calculated from Internal hires, not those new to the company.CSO Back Story11 Weinreb Group