Knowledge@Wharton released an article about typical CEOs background, education and carriers, based on a comparison which compares the "typical" executives in the 80s and in 2001. Quite interesting to observe the shifts in a lot of fields.

Today’s executives are younger, more likely to be female, and less likely to have Ivy League educations. They make their way to the executive suite faster than ever before about four years faster than their counterparts in 1980), and they hold fewer jobs along the way. They spend about five years less in their current organization before being promoted, and are more likely to be hired from the outside. What’s more, the Organization Man, the lifelong corporate employee who worked his way faithfully and slowly up the executive ladder, appears to be headed out the door — increasingly nudged, apparently, by women.