Ticker Company Name Last Price 12/31/02 12/31/98 % gain % gain CEO Pedigree** Schools* Schools
YTD 5-year
1 EBAY eBay Inc 113.07 67.82 40.21 67 181 Harvard Harvard Princeton
2 HGSI Human Genome Sciences Inc 13.58 8.81 8.89 54 53 Harvard Harvard
3 IDPH Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp 36.93 33.17 7.83 11 371 Harvard Harvard MIT
4 IVGN Invitrogen Corp 50.60 31.29 15.38 62 229 Harvard Harvard
5 LAMR Lamar Advertising Co 34.57 33.65 37.25 3 -7 Harvard Harvard
6 MSFT Microsoft Corp 27.29 25.85 34.67 6 -21 Harvard Harvard
7 SPLS Staples Inc 19.79 18.30 29.13 8 -32 Harvard Harvard
8 SBUX Starbucks Corp 26.50 20.38 14.03 30 89 Harvard Harvard
9 SUNW Sun Microsystems Inc 4.98 3.11 10.70 60 -53 Harvard Harvard Stanford
AVERAGE 33 90
10 AMZN Amazon.Com Inc 38.44 18.89 53.54 103 -28 Ivy Princeton
11 APCC American Power Conversion 17.03 15.15 24.22 12 -30 Ivy Brown
12 CMCSA Comcast Corp 32.38 23.57 28.72 37 13 Ivy Wharton
13 ESRX Express Scripts Inc 75.24 48.04 33.56 57 124 Ivy Wharton
14 MEDI Medimmune Inc 39.42 27.17 16.57 45 138 Ivy Dartmouth
15 NTAP Network Appliance Inc 18.74 10.00 11.21 87 67 Ivy Princeton
16 QCOM Qualcomm Inc 37.80 36.39 6.48 4 484 Ivy Cornell MIT
AVERAGE 49 110
17 ALTR Altera Corp 18.94 12.33 15.22 54 24 Ivy Equiv Berkeley
18 BRCD Brocade Communications Systems Inc 6.22 4.14 8.06 50 -23 Ivy Equiv Chicago
19 CHIR Chiron Corp 45.94 37.60 26.19 22 75 Ivy Equiv MIT Carnegie
20 GILD Gilead Sciences Inc 69.28 34.00 10.27 104 575 Ivy Equiv Chicago
21 INTC Intel Corp 24.10 15.57 29.64 55 -19 Ivy Equiv Stanford
22 NVDA Nvidia Corp 23.45 11.51 4.75 104 394 Ivy Equiv Stanford
23 ORCL Oracle Corp 12.64 10.80 7.19 17 76 Ivy Equiv Chicago
24 QLGC QLogic Corp 52.53 34.51 16.36 52 221 Ivy Equiv Berkeley
25 SYMC Symantec Corp 46.16 40.51 10.88 14 324 Ivy Equiv MIT
AVERAGE 52 183
26 AMGN Amgen Inc 71.54 48.34 26.14 48 174 2nd Tier Naval Academy
27 CHRW CH Robinson Worldwide Inc 37.46 31.20 12.97 20 189 2nd Tier St. Johns
28 CMVT Comverse Technology Inc 15.33 10.02 23.67 53 -35 2nd Tier NYU
29 DELL Dell Computer Corp 33.94 26.74 36.59 27 -7 2nd Tier Austin, TX
30 XRAY Dentsply International Inc 44.70 37.20 17.17 20 160 2nd Tier NYU
31 FISV Fiserv Inc 37.81 33.95 22.86 11 65 2nd Tier Tulane
32 GENZ Genzyme Corp-Genl Division 45.54 29.57 24.47 54 86 2nd Tier U VA
33 PIXR Pixar Inc 67.73 52.99 35.00 28 94 2nd Tier Reed
34 TLAB Tellabs Inc 7.24 7.27 34.28 0 -79 2nd Tier NYU
AVERAGE 29 72
35 ADCT ADC Telecommunications Inc 2.45 2.09 8.69 17 -72 Other
36 ADBE Adobe Systems Inc 35.10 24.80 11.69 42 200 Other
37 APOL Apollo Group Inc 65.35 44.00 15.06 49 334 Other
38 AAPL Apple Computer Inc 19.62 14.33 20.47 37 -4 Other
39 AMAT Applied Materials Inc 18.71 13.03 10.67 44 75 Other
40 BEAS BEA Systems Inc 12.08 11.47 3.06 5 294 Other
41 BBBY Bed Bath & Beyond Inc 39.08 34.53 17.06 13 129 Other
42 BGEN Biogen Inc 41.85 40.06 41.50 4 1 Other
43 BMET Biomet Inc 29.15 28.66 17.89 2 63 Other
44 BRCM Broadcom Corp 27.78 15.06 30.19 84 -8 Other
45 CDWC CDW Corp 49.96 43.85 23.98 14 108 Other
46 CEPH Cephalon Inc 48.27 48.67 9.00 -1 436 Other
47 CHKP Check Point Software Technologies 20.66 12.97 7.64 59 171 Other
48 CIEN Ciena Corp 6.27 5.14 7.31 22 -14 Other
49 CTAS Cintas Corp 36.65 45.75 46.96 -20 -22 Other
50 CSCO Cisco Systems Inc 18.52 13.10 23.20 41 -20 Other
51 CTXS Citrix Systems Inc 24.00 12.32 24.27 95 -1 Other
52 CPWR Compuware Corp 5.36 4.80 39.06 12 -86 Other
53 COST Costco Wholesale Corp 37.12 28.06 36.09 32 3 Other
54 DLTR Dollar Tree Stores Inc 36.10 24.57 29.13 47 24 Other
55 DISH EchoStar Communications Corp 37.26 22.26 6.05 67 516 Other
56 ERTS Electronic Arts Inc 79.21 49.77 28.06 59 182 Other
57 EXPD Expeditors International Washington Inc 36.46 32.65 10.50 12 247 Other
58 FAST Fastenal Co 35.12 37.39 22.00 -6 60 Other
59 FHCC First Health Group Corp 27.99 24.35 8.28 15 238 Other
60 FLEX Flextronics International Ltd 12.25 8.19 10.70 50 14 Other
61 GNTX Gentex Corp 32.78 31.64 20.00 4 64 Other
62 HSIC Henry Schein Inc 56.49 45.00 44.75 26 26 Other
63 ICOS ICOS Corp 41.24 23.41 29.75 76 39 Other
64 IACI InterActiveCorp 41.91 22.92 16.56 83 153 Other
65 INTU Intuit Inc 43.14 46.92 24.17 -8 79 Other
66 JDSU JDS Uniphase Corp 3.70 2.47 8.67 50 -57 Other
67 JNPR Juniper Networks Inc 14.77 6.80 24.83 117 -41 Other
68 KLAC Kla-Tencor Corp 51.31 35.37 21.69 45 137 Other
69 LNCR Lincare Holdings Inc 35.10 31.62 20.28 11 73 Other
70 LLTC Linear Technology Corp 36.29 25.72 22.39 41 62 Other
71 MXIM Maxim Integrated Products 38.35 33.04 21.84 16 76 Other
72 MERQ Mercury Interactive Corp 44.20 29.65 15.81 49 180 Other
73 MCHP Microchip Technology Inc 26.36 24.45 10.96 8 140 Other
74 MLNM Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc 14.69 7.94 6.47 85 127 Other
75 MOLX Molex Inc 28.27 23.04 30.50 23 -7 Other
76 MNST Monster Worldwide Inc 21.46 10.60 19.68 103 9 Other
77 NXTL Nextel Communications Inc 19.32 11.55 11.81 67 64 Other
78 NVLS Novellus Systems Inc 39.35 28.08 16.50 40 138 Other
79 PCAR Paccar Inc 72.56 46.13 27.42 57 165 Other
80 SPOT PanAmSat Corp 18.45 14.64 38.94 26 -53 Other
81 PDCO Patterson Dental Co 49.27 43.74 21.75 13 127 Other
82 PTEN Patterson-UTI Energy Inc 28.44 30.17 4.06 -6 600 Other
83 PAYX Paychex Inc 30.20 27.90 22.86 8 32 Other
84 PSFT Peoplesoft Inc 17.74 18.30 18.94 -3 -6 Other
85 PETM Petsmart Inc 19.74 17.13 11.00 15 79 Other
86 RFMD RF Micro Devices Inc 6.83 7.33 5.80 -7 18 Other
87 ROST Ross Stores Inc 44.50 42.39 19.69 5 126 Other
88 RYAAY Ryanair Holdings plc 42.99 39.16 9.44 10 356 Other
89 SANM Sanmina-SCI Corp 8.08 4.49 15.63 80 -48 Other
90 SEBL Siebel Systems Inc 10.01 7.48 8.48 34 18 Other
91 SIAL Sigma-Aldrich Corp 55.92 48.70 29.38 15 90 Other
92 SSCC Smurfit-Stone Container Corp 13.47 15.39 15.81 -12 -15 Other
93 SNPS Synopsys Inc 65.91 46.15 54.25 43 21 Other
94 ERICY Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson 11.82 6.74 42.84 75 -72 Other
95 TEVA Teva Pharmaceutical Industries 56.16 38.61 10.17 45 452 Other
96 VRSN VeriSign Inc 15.12 8.02 14.78 89 2 Other
97 VRTS Veritas Software Corp 29.82 15.62 13.32 91 124 Other
98 WFMI Whole Foods Market Inc 48.60 52.73 24.19 -8 101 Other
99 XLNX Xilinx Inc 26.89 20.60 16.28 31 65 Other
100 YHOO Yahoo! Inc 32.41 16.35 59.23 98 -45 Other
AVERAGE 35 95
*NOTE CLASSIFICATION EXPLANATION
Harvard Only
Ivy Group (incl. Harvard)
Ivy Equivalent (Stanford, MIT, etc.)
2nd Tier (Good but not top top tier schools)
"Other" (3rd tier, or no school listed)
**NOTE If CEO went to Harvard and Chicago, say,
the company was classified as Harvard.
NOTE The Harvard average would have been higher
but for Microsoft, relatively long-in-the-tooth
for a NASDAQ Company
NOTE The Ivy and Ivy-Equivalent averages are
UNDERstated since companies in the Harvard
Group (e.g., Idec) could legitimately have
been classified as Ivy-Equivalent
NOTE For the 5-year returns, the top schools were
MIT and Stanford (the latter having numerous
programs encouraging entrepreneurial
development in the tech and biotech areas), 
with a whopping average gain of 209%
NOTE Of course, NASDAQ companies, with their
dominance by tech companies, are more
likely to be served by a CEO with some
technical background (cf. previous point)
NOTE Interestingly, CEO's from "other" schools
(3rd-tier or below, or not listed) marginally
out-performed the 2nd-tier group (and the Harvard group),
so the conclusion would seem to be that
a NASDAQ company is better off with a CEO
from a no-name school than a second-tier
school.