University of Michigan a top public school for powerful tech CEOs

The odds of becoming CEO of a technology company worth more than $1 billion are not high.

However, if you do have your sights set on leading a high-tech powerhouse, there’s no better public university to attend than the University of Michigan, according to a new ranking from Bloomberg News.

Michigan ranked tied for fourth overall with the University of California at Berkley, following Princeton, Harvard and Stanford. The rankings were made by counting the number of alumni or attendees of schools who are currently chief executive officers of technology companies with market capitalizations over $1 billion.

Bloomberg noted Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky and Steve Singh, who runs travel expenses company Concur Technologies, among the six Michigan attendees who helped establish Michigan’s place on the list.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who spoke at U-M's spring commencement, could move Michigan up to second place on the list once the company’s initial public offering occurs, likely later this year. Twitter is expected to have an initial market capitalization of more than $10 billion.

• See the full list from Bloomberg.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2