Ambitious, enthusiastic and self-assured, many of today's captains of industry have taken a straight path from school prefect or star of the playing field to the top of British business, says a report to be published tomorrow.

The survey of chief executives and board level directors of the country's biggest companies found that most demonstrated their leadership potential at school, with nearly 90 per cent holding at least two roles such as head boy or girl, prefect or sports captain.

Many of the 105 business leaders questioned by Mori for DDI, an international human resources consultancy, said they stood out from the crowd and showed early determination to be in charge.

"I was competitive and sporting and a natural leader and also quite clever and hard-working," one said.

A significant majority of 65 per cent said that they had always wanted to lead and nearly 60 per cent said they had always been ambitious.

"Those same charismatic characters we all knew at school, who seemed able to pick almost anything up and become good at it, are running our biggest companies today," said Steve Newhall, UK managing director of DDI.

About 70 per cent of those questioned were prefects, 50 per cent captains of school sports teams, 30 per cent were head or deputy head boy or girl and 29 per cent led a youth group such as Scouts outside school.

A minority of 34 per cent said they had not actively sought to be successful and only 10 per cent were surprised at how fast they had risen to the top.

Most, however, were not content to hide their light under a bushel at school.

As one said: "I was a pushy little brat."