“One of my secrets is—really, I do give Brown credit for this—this balanced education that I kind of stumbled on,” Dara Khosrowshahi said recently during a panel at the Ivy League college—his alma mater. 

“Learning all of the… really important basics of engineering, but then marrying that with liberal arts, that really taught me to communicate in a compelling way, which is an absolute necessity when you’re in a leadership position.”

Khosrowshahi majored in engineering at Brown University, graduating in 1991, before embarking on a “squiggly” career climb to the C-suite working across finance and technology. 

He started off at investment bank Allen & Co., later taking on executive roles at USA Networks, now called InterActiveCorp (IAC). While at the company, he was instrumental in passing a $1.3 billion deal for the business to buy Expedia from Microsoft. It was a move that positioned the U.S. travel agency to one day grow into an industry giant—and a few years after the acquisition, Khosrowshahi became Expedia’s CEO. During his tenure from 2005 to 2016, the company’s revenue swelled from $2.1 billion to $8.7 billion. 

In 2017, he took the helm of the $141 billion ride-sharing giant Uber. And in Khosrowshahi’s eyes, if he hadn’t taken those classes during his time at Brown, he might not be where he is today—or taking home a $39.4 million salary to show for it. 

Engineering taught the CEO “how to solve complex problems,” while liberal arts, he adds, “just captured my heart.” 

But really, Khosrowshahi’s education was the perfect marriage of what shareholders and consumers are looking for in leadership: technical and emotional intelligence. Gen Z students looking to climb the totem pole one day should take note now and get invested. 

Gen Zers with an engineering degree could earn $500,000-plus

Many Gen Z are torn between whether a degree is useful or not. Alongside astronomical tuition costs and a tough white-collar job market, some leaders contend that college education isn’t as valuable as it once was.

Indeed, getting a college degree isn’t always the golden ticket to the upper echelons of society, even at the very top: Only two of the eight Ivy League schools—the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University—actually land their students a six-figure salary a decade into their careers.

And 43% of those who invested in an advanced degree yielded a negative return on their educational investment. 

But shelling out for a degree can be well worth it, depending on where Gen Z attend and what they study. Those who get a bachelor’s in nursing, economics, computer science, and engineering—like Khosrowshahi—tend to reap a positive payoff of $500,000 or more.

CEOs in the modern day: empathetic leaders with AI savviness 

Corporations are under the public’s microscope. Meanwhile, shareholders are increasingly wary of how their CEO’s behavior seeps into business. 

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Just take the crushing boycotts and vandalization of Elon Musk’s Tesla plants for example. Amid public outrage at the CEO’s intrusion into U.S. politics—dismantling government agencies with DOGE, hurling thousands of federal workers into unemployment—the automotive company became the punching bag for Musk’s behavior. Shareholders were furious. 

That’s why emotional intelligence and sensitivity to consumer sentiment are quickly becoming hot traits for CEOs; There was a 31% increase in C-suite leaders featuring soft skills on their LinkedIn profiles between 2018 and 2024, like communication and conflict resolution. 

Plus, as robots and algorithms shoulder more routine tasks, humans will be increasingly expected to take on the emotional work. 

“These people skills are going to become more and more core to not just how someone becomes an executive, but the work of executives: Mobilizing teams, and building a company that is human-centric,” Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, told Fortune

CEOs today are also expected to be tech wizards—or risk being replaced by AI-savvy leaders. And Gen Z students may already have a leg-up, as the digital-native generation is more inclined to tinker with chatbots and copilots than others. The youngest generation of workers could be on the fast track to management—even overthrowing their millennial bosses—as leaders say that AI aptitude already rivals experience.