Going by Social Security data, executives of non-financial companies represented 20% of the 30,000 or so Americans with the biggest incomes in 1994.
While most data executives now in the field came from media backgrounds, they are recruiting Wall Street math geniuses because the job requires hourly adjustments in strategy based on numbers.
As data executives continue to build on their research, this arena could resemble Wall Street even more: yield managers could hedge their purchases, buy futures to lock in prices and use other trading strategies.
In their zeal for economic data, executives constantly highlight a chart that they call "the spaghetti chart" or "the Jackson Pollock chart," a mess of squiggly lines showing the volatile earnings for each commodity BHP produces, and a smooth line through the middle representing the company's relatively stable profit.
But according to figures assembled for The New York Times by Equilar, which compiles data on executive compensation, media companies employ seven of the top 20 highest paid chief executives.
A survey published in April looked at preliminary data on executive pay.
Yahoo also lost Scott Noteboom this month, a senior data center executive, who left to join Apple.
Mr. Wilson, 29, is a data account executive in New York for the business markets division of AT&T.
Data on executive departures compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the job placement firm, shows that 71 chief financial officers left their posts in April, compared with 63 chief executives.
For more data on executive pay, go to www.forbes.com/ceos.
