The qualifications of many of Australia’s top CEOs in the IT industry are wanting, with boardrooms dominated by executives from accounting and finance rather than technology backgrounds, a new report claims.

According to recruiting firm Robert Half, the current situation in Australia has raised concerns that hundreds of local boards are yet to fully embrace innovative leaders who happen to have  a background in technology.

Only six percent of top Australian ASX200 CEOs have such a background, Half’s figures show. That compares with around 11pc in the UK.

On the other hand, those who have trodden the well-worn path from CFO to CEO Down Under include ANZ Bank’s Shayne Elliott, Medibank CEO Craig Drummond, Telstra’s Andy Penn, South32’s Graham Kerr, Suncorp’s Michael Cameron and Woolworths’ Brad Banducci, according to a Financial Review report on the research.

Half says ASX200 CEOs are typically male (94 percent), based in Sydney (47pc) and likely to have a postgraduate degree (54pc), a background in finance (50pc) and international work experience (59pc). 

The research comes as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Samsung have topped the Boston Consulting Group’s list of world’s 50 most innovative companies, with not one Australian company making the list.