He was passed over in 2014 when Home Depot changed CEOs, and he went to Penney.. Duckett, known by her friends and colleagues as T, is one of JP Morgan Chases visible and accessible executives. This number is down from seven less than a decade earlier. As a sought-after ex-CEO, Williamss firm, RW2 Enterprises, advises C-suite leaders on strategy development and how to get employees on board with where a CEO is heading. This is the first question I attempted to answer when Iestablished the race beatatFortuneexactly five years ago this month. Burns now serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil, the Ford Foundation, IHS Towers, Nestl, Uber, and Waystar. Hobson first joined the board in 2005 and was appointed vice-chair in 2018. And there were 24 women CEOs in the Fortune 500 -- representing 4.8 percent of companies -- as of June. Clarification, February 5, 2021: This article has been updated to include more details about Franklin Raines retirement. View Dont P. Shannon, FASAE, CAE'S profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Marvin Ellison is the CEO of Lowe and has the rare distinction of being the only Black executive to have CEO positions at two different Fortune 500 companies. Frank Clyburn is the CEO of International Flavors and Fragrances in February of 2022. More crucially, Delphi became the dominant seller of in-car tech for things like safety and efficiency, setting it up well to serve an evolving car industry. The Harvard Law grad and Rhodes Scholar had long bounced between public service and corporate life. At Merck, the Harvard Law Schooltrained Frazier has helped the drug giant refocus itself on research and development, particularly early stage research. She also has honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, St. Marys College, University of Southern California and Johns Hopkins University. In 2019, she was named one of Fortunes Most Powerful Women to Watch.. On his watch, Aetna (part of CVS Health since 2018) revenues nearly doubled, having turned around a struggling insurer. Frank Clyburn, who in February was appointed CEO of International Flavors & Fragrances, is the third new entrant on the list. In this audio-only course, adapted from the Thirty Minute Mentors podcast, leadership expert Adam Mendler sits down to talk with Deanna shortly before her retirement. (Penney filed for bankruptcy protection last year and is a much smaller chain now.) As CEO he is making workforce diversity a bigger priority. And in 1998, he rejoined Fannie Mae, quickly ascending to the top job. His research focused on Milwaukee, a racially segregated city with a desperately high poverty rate. That number is "disheartening," Hyter says, noting that the root cause isn't a lack of talent, but a lack. When Parsons became CEO of Time Warner, the drama-free banker (he had been CEO of Dime Bancorp in the 1990s) and lawyer was a breath of fresh air in an industry known for its flamboyant, hard-charging CEOs. Beyond her own achievements, Coel's work was the best example of how the high-quality TV space saw some much-needed ethnic diversity last year, especially among female performers, he writes. All courtesy of companies. But theres still a sizable parity chasm. The company made history in 1987. Roberts mother was running a daycare when he was an infant and so he was exposed to entrepreneurship from an early age. Spending eight years at the helm of car parts giant Delphi made ONeal the most prominent Black person in the car industry during an era of intense change for the sector. Ting ShenBloomberg/Getty Images . foundation, we have to bring people together," he claimed as he ushered everyone back to the office, one of the first CEOs to do so. 1 on the list. He started his retail career in loss prevention atTarget. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell My Personal Information| Ad Choices That just doesnt happen to the same degree with Black executives in the pipeline.. Prior to her appointment, she was the Chief Executive Officer of Chase Consumer Banking, a division of JP Morgan. (One of Fergusons forebears, Clifton Wharton, was CEO from 1987 to 1993, but the company was not included on the Fortune 500 at the time, because the list was focused on industrial companies back then.). Alas, though he was named Fortunes most powerful black executive in America that year, his tenure did not end well; he was forced out five years later as Merrill Lynch began to implode. The Chicago-reared son of a bus driver and a manicurist told Fortune in 2019 that he was the least likely person ever to lead a $34 billion corporation.. Following his departure, there are now only three Black Fortune 500 Ceos: Marvin Ellison of. as well as other partner offers and accept our, Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage / Getty Images, became the interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond, found that Black people account for only 3.2% of senior leadership roles, As ine Cain of Business Insider previously reported. After seven more years at Boeing, he retired in 2012 and has since joined the boards of bellwether corporations like JPMorgan Chase in 2011, Apple in 2015, and Dow in 2019. Another metric that helps reveal the long-term patterns is the number of new Fortune 500 CEOs appointed each year (as opposed to the number who were in office in a given year). With Taylor's departure, just seven Fortune 500 companies have co-CEOs. IFF narrowly missed making the Fortune 500 ranking last year, placing 522nd. Sign up for theFortune Features email list so you dont miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations. Once he took the reins, he made big moves to repair the severely damaged retailer. Keep scrolling to learn about the three Black professionals currently at the top of the corporate ranks. In addition to being four of the 46 women CEOs in the Fortune 500, they also spent a significant portion of their careers at food and beverage conglomerate PepsiCo, where they honed the . When Ken Frazier retires from . In his previous roles as head of U.S. business and then operations chief, hed been part of an incredible run at the Golden Arches: eight years of consecutive same-store sales growth, a nearly 50% increase in revenue, and a more than doubling of profits. HR isnt going to get you there, she says. Offers may be subject to change without notice. As one of the senior black finance executives, Duckett is working to improve financial health and literacy for the 23 million households served by her organization. A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) he cofounded in 2016 bought a car parts firm in the fall of 2020. Passed up for the companys CEO role in 2014, he left for J.C. Penney, making him the only Black executive to have held two CEO titles at Fortune 500 companies. And his approach worked. The other is Thasunda Brown Duckett of the Teachers, Insurance, and Annuity Association (TIAA), a nonprofit financial services. But he left after only a month because of illness. Why the decline in recent years? His A-list fans include Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway was American Expresss largest shareholder when Chenault retired; Buffett went on to name Chenault to the Berkshire board, replacing Bill Gates last year. When Frazier announced his retirement, there were only four Black CEOs among all the Fortune 500 companies. Oh, hang on breaking news Merck CEO Ken Frazier just announced that he will bestepping down at the end of June. Her predecessor had been ousted abruptly as the struggling home goods retailer faced an activist investor pushing for a major overhaul. Today, as we wade into the grim truth-telling that is Black History Month, we are facing the same question. However, since 2020, there have been six Black CEOs leading Fortune. Its our job to seek them out and help mentor them to the next phase.. Over the complete history of the Fortune 500, which dates back to 1999, there have only been a total of 18 Black CEOs leading America's Fortune 500 companies. While restaurant CEOs typically have specific industry experience, Otis had been a securities lawyer and a manager at JPMorgan Chase before joining Darden as treasurer in 1995 and becoming CFO then CEO. 18 on the list and brought in $148.5 billion in revenue in 2021. 43% of PepsiCo managers are female. But atHome Depot, where he spent many years, he jumped to store management, giving him a P&L by which to measure him as he rose up. She previously served as a director of JPMorgan Chase and previously served as Board chair of Este Lauder Companies and DreamWorks Animation. In the history of theFortune 500 list, first published in 1955, there have been only 19 Black CEOs out of 1,800 chiefs. The first was Ursula Burns, who served as CEO of Xerox from 2009 until 2016, and as chairwoman from 2010 to 2017. For the first time, in 2021, two Black females are at the helm of Fortune 500 companies at the same time: Roz Brewer and Thasunda Brown Duckett. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Ed Gordon talks with Clarence Otis, Jr., CEO of the Darden Corp., which owns restaurants including Red Lobster and the Olive Garden. After reaching an all-time high of 32 in 2017, the number of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies dropped by 25 percent in the past year. "With blacks making up 10 percent of college graduates, you would think there. In Summer of 2022, 8.8% of CEOs are women and today women are 9% of CEOs in the Fortune 500. All Rights Reserved. Roz Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the highest-ranking Black-led company, is a prime example of the growth opportunities that are a byproduct of P&L roles. Black women tend to get shuntedaway frompositions of real impact and end up in career cul-de-sacs that eliminate them from consideration. In the following decade, he worked at New York investment bank Lazard Frres, specializing in municipal finance. He has built a highly successful post-CEO career: On top of being chairman of the Conference Boards board of trustees, he is on the boards of American Express, Boeing, and Johnson & Johnson. 2022 Fortune Media IP Limited. Terms & Conditions. His career in the industry started almost by accident. As ine Cain of Business Insider previously reported, Ellison started his career as a part-time security guard at a Target in Memphis, earning $4.35 an hour. Ward is still active, partaking in Wall Streets investment structure du jour: blank check companies. He worked at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and as a White House Fellow. Lets look inward at the infrastructure of how talent is developed within our organizations as opposed to being perpetually frustrated that awesome people arent readily available, he says. In 2015, Munoz was one of two Hispanic CEOs in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 list. Whatever awaits future Black CEOs, additions to the Fortune 500 could be few and far between if corporate America doesnt move to fill its pipeline of Black talent. This is not a complaint; it's a reality. Shes the epitome of experiences, additional responsibilities, and demonstrated value, Hyter says. As of May 2022, there were two Black women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. With the thrilling news that Roz Brewer, currently Starbucks Chief Operating Officer, has beentapped to become Walgreens next CEO, she is now one of 40 women running a Fortune 500 companyand currently, the only Black one. Profit and loss responsibility creates a better and clearer recognition of a persons capabilities of managing a business, Hyter says. However, since 2020, there have been six Black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. But nearly two years later, theres still a glaring racial divide in the top echelons of the business world, though headway has been made. She is now the president of her own consulting firm, WinsCo Enterprises, and serves on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill. While his team drew from state-level data and court records, he also chose to live in a trailer park and city apartments for months, to better understand the lives of families living in poverty and how evictions impacted their lives. When Zeitlin was appointed CEO of the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade in 2019, his mandate was clear: help Tapestry re-energize its flagship Coach brand and finally turn around the Kate Spade label, whose acquisition by Tapestry in 2017 by his predecessor, who exited abruptly, has led to large write-downs. His board directorships have included Marriott and Walt Disney. He joined Qurate Retail from NielsenIQ, where he served as CEO and led the company through a transition to new ownership. 322. An unsafe neighborhood and lack of fresh food. Thompson asked for more time to turn the company around, but in January 2015 McDonalds announced he was stepping down after two and a half years at the helm. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. The Center for Talent Innovation's "Being Black in Corporate America" report, released in late 2018, found that Black people account for only 3.2% of senior leadership roles at large corporations, and hold just 0.8% of Fortune 500 CEO positions. Only a handful of blacks or African Americans are in charge of Fortune 500 companies. The peak year for. A major source of the problem is that too few Black businesspeople are put on a management track early in their career, in which a promising executive is given oversight of a business with its own profit and loss (P&L) benchmarks, the measures by which superiors and the board assess whether someone is CEO material. Terms & Conditions. TIAA, a Fortune 100 financial services. As much as leading aFortune 500is the holy grail for countless business school students, young Black entrepreneurs could be the ones building theFortune 500companies of tomorrow and beefing up the tally that way. After stepping down as CEO following the companys split in two, Burns stayed on for a short time as chairman of Xerox Corp. She followed up her Fortune 500 tenure with a stint as CEO and chair of the telecommunications business Veon. But Parsons, a man about town at New Yorks countless cultural events, also lends his talents to a number of arts organizations including the Apollo Theater Foundation and the Jazz Foundation of America. He later steered TIAA through the 200809 financial crisis. This year, six Black chief executives sit atop Fortune 500 companies, making up just over 1% of businesses on the 2022 ranking. The list of Black CEOs heading a Fortune 500 company got shorter on Tuesday when the chief executive of Coach and Kate Spade parent Tapestry left the fashion company after less than a year on the job. The ranking also marks the first time a Black founder has made the list in Fortune 500 history, and the second year the list has featured two Black womenWalgreens CEO Roz Brewer and TIAA chief executive Thasunda Brown Duckett. 495. A major source of the problem is that too few Black businesspeople are put on a management track early in their career, in which a promising executive is given oversight of a business with its own profit and loss (P&L) benchmarks, the measures by which superiors and the board assess whether someone is CEO material.. 2022 Fortune Media IP Limited. Data show that there are a growing number of Black entrepreneurs and business leaders currently than in the past. S&P Index data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. Eric Deggans digs into the list, with the most egregious oversight clearly Michaela Coel's HBO drama I May Destroy You. We too often look to theFortune 500largest companies when, in fact, its logical that the next leaders today sit outside theFortune 500, says Jones, whos headed M&T, a Buffalo-based bank, for three years. There are only four Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. More worrisome, observers and executives agree, is that there is no quick fix, given the years it takes to groom someone for the C-suite, Phil writes. She previously served as CEO of Sams Club and COO at Starbucks before joining Walgreens in 2021. For example, 26% of women are in the C-suite, with Black women representing less than 5%. On his watch, Delphi exited bankruptcy, returned to the stock market, and saw sales grow 45% to $17 billion in his final year. He also became managing director of venture capital firm General Catalyst last year and is a board member on the Council of Foreign Relations. And addressing the long-standing lack of diversity in their own. Records show that there have only been a total of 18 Black CEOs leading Americas Fortune 500 companies since 1999. Frazier, leading one of the countrys largest drugmakers at a time Trump was talking about lowering prices on pharmaceuticals, has said it wasnt about politics so much as defending basic American values. She was unflinching in her assessment of the problem. The merger was the brainchild of hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, who hoped that their expansive store fleets, economies of scale, and complementary product assortments would form an industry-leading company. Not everyone ends up in the C-suite, of course, but the formal structure has made it easier to identify and nurture female He joined AmEx in 1981, working in strategic planning and making his way up the ranks. She makes regular media and television appearances for the bank. All rights reserved. Thompson went on to found Chicago-based venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue, which specializes in food and beverage businesses, and sits on the boards of alternative meat startup Beyond Meat, financial services company Northern Trust, and Royal Caribbean Cruises. are generally more likely to be given the nod, Passed up for the companys CEO role in 2014, Men are dropping out of the labor force because theyre upset about their social status, according to a new study, Elon Musks Neuralink staff claim his demands to rush brain implant trials led to the needless deaths of 1,500 animals, Elon Musk is selling Twitter HQs espresso machines, Eames chairs, and sculptures in a giant auction, CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice. In the wake of racial protests following the murder of George Floyd, companies pledged to increase diversity within their executive ranks and accelerate change internally. The second Black woman on the list was Mary Winston who, in May 2019, became the interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond. After Merrill, he never landed another C-suite job. In December, he helped found a group of CEOs from 37 major employers, including IBM, Nike, Target, Delta Air Lines, and Merck, pledging to hire 1 million Black workers in the next decade. Why, after so many years of awareness of this problem, is that number still so stubbornly low? Creating a robust pipeline of future Black CEOs will require that companies prioritize would-be candidates based on their potential to deliver at high levels early in their careers, instead of assessing their late-career performance alone. We have called them "The New CEOs" to emphasize that they are not, like the old CEOs . Company: Lowe's, a retail home improvement store. She only held the position until November of that year, when she was replaced by Mark Tritton, a white man. His dealmaking acumen landed him a role as senior adviser to private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, and he cofounded Imagination Capital, a venture capital firm. He currently sits on the boards of Verizon, North Face parent VF Corp., and Travelers. His business savvy is now sought after by younger companies, landing him on the board of Airbnb. Chenault (who was only the third black CEO to run a Fortune 500 company) was eventually joined by Don Thompson at McDonald's, Ursula Burns at Xerox, Roger Ferguson at TIAA-CREF, Kenneth Frazier . Some key findings of the report: Blacks represent less than 1 percentage point (0.8 percent) of Fortune 500 CEOs. Thats a noteworthy increase from last year, when only five Black CEOs ran Fortune 500 companies. The all-time high was six in 2012. She also serves as Chairman of the Board of the companys publicly traded mutual funds. [1] [2] As of Dec 7, 2022, women were CEOs at 9.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies. A CPA by training, Jones is also ramping up efforts to hire more from Buffalos local talent pool. Hobson has served as the vice-president of the board, and her latest will take effect in March 2021. Others followed Fraziers lead, resulting in the councils disbanding. [A]tHome Depot, where he spent many years, he jumped to store management, giving him a P&L by which to measure him as he rose up, says Wahba. In one of his biggest tests as CEO, Chenault led his company out of the crisis that followed 9/11: American Express had thousands of workers in the towers next to the World Trade Center. Suchi Reddy, an immigrant from India, remembers the shock: I never really knew what racism was until I came to this country, she said. "The Women CEOs in America Report offers much more than just data related to women leading the country's major corporations," said Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC. And for the first time in at least 30 years, sales declined in the U.S. business. Before becoming CEO, selected by his predecessor, Harvey Golub, Chenault had been operations chief. But he has served on some boards and is currently a director at aluminum products maker Arconic. Raines kept a lower professional profile after his departure, though he has stayed active as a venture capitalist and is on the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, runs the 18th-largest. The executive pipeline then, is thin by blind spot and design. That will leave only four Black CEOs on the Fortune 500: Brewer, Ken Frazier atMerck, Marvin Ellison atLowes, and Ren Jones at M&T Bank. Before joining TIAA in 2008, the Harvard-educated lawyer had a long career in public service, notably helping coordinate the Federal Reserves response to 9/11. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Thasunda Brown Duckett leads the Fortune 500 company Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). Duckett grew up in a family that faced economic challenges. The first thing you overcome is the gender bias, and then the racial questions come.Curbed, It's so unfortunate that Michaela Coel was snubbed, but at least we can still congratulate Black royalty: Regina King. Im always appreciative of increases because directionally its the right answer, but Im also mindful that the overall numbers are still significantly low, says Michael Hyter, president and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), an organization that works to build a C-suite pipeline for Black executives. In the past, he served as President of Grainger Global Online, where he led the fastest growth, a stand-alone division of W.W. Grainger, Inc. David has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law and is a graduate of The Citadel. Not everyone ends up . The announcement last week thatStarbuckschief operating officer Roz Brewerwould become CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance in mid-Marchwas met with enthusiasm on Wall Street because a massive company was getting a widely admired executive as its CEO. That's four black leaders among the. There are no black CEOs among Fortune 500 tech companies. Only 1% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are African Americans, 2.4% are East Asians or South Asians, and 3.4% are Latinx. Longtime PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi will step down in October . On May 1, TIAA welcomes Thasunda Brown Duckett, its first African American female CEO and the fourth Black woman CEO in a Fortune 500 company. Just four black CEOs run Fortune 500 companies in America, and they are speaking out about racial inequality following the death of George Floyd . She was also on ForbesWorlds 100 Most Powerful Womenlist this year. What do Dick's Sporting Goods's Lauren Hobart, Hershey's Michele Buck, Land O'Lakes's Beth Ford, and Foot Locker's Mary Dillon all have in common? Today, there are five Black CEOs in the Fortune 500. And, as anyone who has been paying attention has repeatedly noted, nobody is coming. At one time there were as many as 12 black CEOs in the Fortune 500, according to Ronald C. Parker, CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, an organization representing top black executives in the Fortune 500. The hardware chain brought in $96 billion in revenue in 2021 and comes in at No. Parsons, who had spent 16 years as a director at Citi through 2012, including four as chairman, sits on the boards of investment bank Lazard and Madison Square Garden. He was ousted that year, but his successor couldnt undo the damage, and Merrill was ultimately bought by Bank of America in 2009 during the financial crisis. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Between 2005 and 2011, Fortune 500 companies added eight new black CEOs. . Despite the small sample size, their experiences mirror those of the broader chief executive population: Three were interim CEOs (Mary Winston at Bed Bath & Beyond; Derica Rice atEli Lilly, James Bell at Boeing); three clashed with boards and top shareholders over strategy (Sears Aylwin Lewis, Maytags Lloyd Ward, andMcDonaldsDonald Thompson); one was ousted by activist investors (Darden Restaurants Clarence Otis Jr.); one left amid allegations of accounting irregularities (Fannie Maes Franklin Raines); one was pushed out as his firm began to implode (Merrill Lynchs Stan ONeal); and one amid a personal conduct scandal (Tapestrys Jide Zeitlin). Business units at Time Warner, which had merged with America Online and experienced fractious relations, learned to work harmoniously with one another under Parsons. Men are dropping out of the labor force because theyre upset about their social status, according to a new study, Elon Musks Neuralink staff claim his demands to rush brain implant trials led to the needless deaths of 1,500 animals, Elon Musk is selling Twitter HQs espresso machines, Eames chairs, and sculptures in a giant auction, CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice. With TIAA CEO Roger Ferguson Jr. stepping down at the end of March, that brings the total number of BlackFortune500 CEOs to four: Brewer, Ken Frazier atMerck, Marvin Ellison atLowes and Ren Jones atM&T Bank. They also shared a therapist. It went public on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2021, raking in $6.4 billion in revenue that year. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who is currently one of the few Black CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, is retiring in June, ending a nearly 30-year run with the company. Stonecipher himself had returned to the company to replace a CEO who left in scandal amid ethical lapses. But the improvements only went so far under the weight of so much decay. Black CEOs are all around us, if we would let them grow. He is widely credited with having built one of the biggest loyalty programs in the world. Ren Jones, the CEO of M&T Bank, dropped from the 2022 list because the firm did not exceed the minimum $6.39 billion annual revenue required to make this years ranking. Brian Cornell is one of PepsiCo's most successful alumni as the . 35. While interim CEOs often land the job permanently, Bed Bath & Beyond ultimately poached Targets former chief merchant to be its new chief executive. Today, women . ONeal, who had started his career at General Motors in financial roles, joined Merrill in 1986. Obamacare. However, few of them have yet to translate to the C-suite in corporate America. The Fortune 500 gets its third-ever Black female CEO February 26, 2021 By Claire Zillman and Emma Hinchliffe Retail There are now just 4 Black CEOs in the Fortune 500 as Tapestry boss. 2022 Fortune Media IP Limited. So, now look at the numbers of women we have now. Otis sold off Red Lobster and started cost-cutting, but ultimately that did not mollify the activists, and Otis stepped down in 2014. Most Fortune 500 CEOs, regardless of gender and ethnicity, were not automatically placed into those roles. As of 2019, Black executives held only 10% of senior P&L roles in the Fortune 500. Ellison holds the distinction of being the only Black CEO to helm two Fortune 500 companies, both retailers: the first, department store company J.C. Penney, the second, home improvement. Winston, an executive with extensive finance and accounting experience, was only the second Black woman to ever land on the Fortune 500 as CEO, doing so on an interim basis two years ago at Bed Bath & Beyond. This means offering Black employees high-value and high-visibility assignments, providing them with sponsorship opportunities, and being deliberate and transparent about goals and performance metrics. He took the helm of the company about halfway through a massive restructuring in federal bankruptcy court but left Delphi transformed and prosperous. Since 2000, there have been 151 white women and people of color appointed CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Communications and the arts arent going to get you there. Hyter says that companies should continuously ask themselves, Whats the percentage of people in the pipeline who have the potential to manage a billion-dollar business, and who ultimately could be in the queue for CEO consideration? Burns led Xerox through a tumultuous period, starting with the $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services in 2009 and ending with the 2016 separation of the business into two companies: document technology company Xerox Corp. and business process outsourcing company Conduent. His lasting influence stems from other sources too. On Thursday it was announced that Kenneth Fraizer, CEO of the pharmaceutical company Merck and Co., will retire. He had ascended to the corner suite after only three years at Maytag and won kudos for the pace of new product introductions on his watch, notably with higher-end appliances. That will leave only four Black CEOs on the Fortune 500: Brewer, Ken Frazier at Merck, Marvin Ellison at Lowe's, and Ren Jones at M&T Bank. . However, the 500 corporations on this year's list generated $13.8 trillion in revenues, or some two-thirds of the U.S . Duckett is TIAA's second consecutive Black chief executive, succeeding Roger W. Ferguson, who announced his retirement in November after 12 years at the helm. It was a similarly dispiriting moment. But in 2014 he didnt get the CEO job and he went to J.C. Penney, which was dealing with a life or death crisis. Listen to The Refresh, Insider's real-time news show. Correction, May 23, 2022: This article has been updated to include Qurate Retail CEO David Rawlinson. Ward enjoyed a short stint as CEO of Maytag, spending all of 15 months leading the appliance maker before leaving in the wake of a disagreement with its board over strategy. He held that position until he became the CEO of JC Penney in 2015. Thompson undertook numerous efforts to try to revitalize the companyshaking up the management team, investing in digital endeavors, customization through a build your-own-burger platform, new marketing, and both simplifying and localizing the menu. While that worked initially, turning Merrill into the top brokerage, it sowed the seeds of disaster later on. They did not disappoint. The tracks that lead to the CEO jobs are primarily P&Ls, says Michael Hyter,chief diversity officerat consulting firm Korn Ferry. All rights reserved. M&T Bank, under Ren Jones, has made a greater effort to recruit from a broader range of schools to remedy that. 2022 will be known as "The Great CEO Reshuffle" as several major companies, including Disney, Meta, Twitter, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Kohl's, and CNN, have seen their chief executive leave this year. (Mary Winstonbecame the second, after she briefly ledBed Bath & Beyond as interim CEO in 2019.). Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell My Personal Information| Ad Choices But there was also widespread elation that a new Black CEO would be joining the ranks of those on the Fortune 500, and a woman no less, an all too rare occurrence. In 2002, he moved to Home Depot, where made his way to head of U.S. stores. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. What do Munoz has been named among the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business magazine. He is the only Black person to be CEO of twoFortune500 companies, and he nearly didnt make it the first time. However, Jones still leads the Buffalo N.Y.-based bank. Until the George Floyd killing and resulting nationwide unrest last year, Ren Jones was not a particularly outspoken CEO on social issues. Qurate, the parent company of popular shopping brands including QVC, HSN, and Zulily, brought in $14 billion in revenue in 2021 and ranks at No. Jones, the son of a Black World War II vet and the woman he met in Europe, has been at M&T since 1992 and was named CEO three years ago. The CFO at pharma giant Eli Lilly stepped into the CEO role on an interim basis while his boss, John Lechleiter, was out on medical leave to deal with a dilated aorta. But in the last two years of his stint, he was unable to quell market share losses as consumers started flocking to cheaper options such as Panera and Chipotle. That means that black CEOs make up a tiny fractionjust 1%of the Fortune 500 despite African-Americans representing 13.4% of the U.S. population, according to the most recent government. Take anexecutive like Lowes CEO Marvin Ellison, who previously ledJ.C. Penney,making him the only Black CEO to lead two differentFortune 500companies. The executives own career at the print and digital services business began with a 1980 internship, culminating in her eventual titles of president in 2007, chief executive in 2009, and chairman in 2010. He was passed over in 2014 when Home Depot changed CEOs, and he went to Penney. In 1991, he went to work for Fannie Mae. Beth Kowitt and Emma Hinchliffe contributed to this project. Matthew J. Meloy. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Don't get me wrong: Black Americans are glad that finally after 400 years, there is mass . When she left in 2017, there were none. When their overall numbers peaked (at seven , in 2007), their representation was still minuscule, representing fewer than 2 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs, but at the very least, during the 2000s, the direction of the trendline was up. Diversity Among Fortune 500 CEOs from 2000 to 2020: White Women, Hi-Tech South Asians, . In 2018, he became CEO of Lowe's. Thats like a list of 25 people, Burns says, which utterly ignores the remarkable talent that exists in a wide variety of positions and industries. Duckett is TIAA's second consecutive Black chief executive, succeeding Roger W. Ferguson, who announced his retirement in November after 12 years at the helm. But the chief of Buffalo-based M&T Bank has become vocal about the need for large employers like his to diversify the pool of job candidates. That finance acumen has made him a sought-after director. These nine CEOs include well-established. In his book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Harvard social scientist and ethnographer Matthew Desmond applies his research on the intersection poverty, race and gender, to offer this wrenching analysis into how the loss of a home triggers a cascade of negative events for some, while others are enriched. He was appointed to the position in 2021. Brewer is currently the COO of Starbucks and will become the only Black female to helm a Fortune 500 company after she assumes the title of Walgreens CEO in March. There are plenty of other factors at play, such as the schools from which big corporations recruit, which too often include primarily traditionally elite schools. Qurate Retail CEO David Rawlinson is another newcomer to the Black Fortune 500 executive cabal, joining the company in July 2021. Best Universities collected information on the schools that the top 10 women Fortune 500 CEOs attended, using company websites, news coverage, and LinkedIn. She came on just as the coffee retailer faced serious accusations of racial bias in one of its Philadelphia stores, and its superstar founder, Howard Schultz, left the company. At Facebook, where Mark Zuckerberg faces criticism for allowing President Trump's incendiary posts to stay up, only 3.1% of senior . More worrisome, observers and executives agree, is that there is no quick fix, given the years it takes to groom someone for the C-suite. Just 24 Black CEOs have made the Fortune 500 list in its roughly 68-year history. Brewer is one of just two Black women CEOs in the Fortune 500. There were a series of experiences, developmental moments, and opportunities for demonstration of capability that each of them had, Hyter says. And only three women on the list of Fortune 500 female CEOs are women of color, according to Fortune. He had reached the corner office of a restaurant operator with an unconventional background. To be sure, any increase in Black CEO representation is cause for celebration given the Fortune 500s predominantly white and male history. Published in April. Ferguson was also previously vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System. Inadequate housing and education. But to really change things, we should revisit the premise of my first-ever corporate diversity story, and all the ones that came after: The path to the C-Suite starts from birth. Before Maytag, he had been a senior executive at big consumer companies such as PepsiCos Frito Lay division and Procter & Gamble. M&T has moved further in that direction by shifting more of its college recruitment to historically black colleges and universities. Black people account for about 12% of the U.S. population, but occupy only 3.2% of the senior leadership roles at large companies in the U.S. and just 0.8% of all Fortune 500 CEO positions . Board chairs routinely ask her for a list of Black folks who have already run aFortune500 company or similar. CEO Tenure: 2 . He continued his education at Columbia Business School where he earned his MBA. S&P Index data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. "It goes beyond the numbers to provide insight into what's happening and why, adding . The criminal justice system. Not to mention the constant low-level exhaustion of living in a country that wants to wave away white supremacist norms like so many gnats from an errant puddle. If the answer is zero, then [they] need to work on that. Individuals in roles overseeing a companys finances, like CFOs and chief operating officers, are generally more likely to be given the nod for CEO placement. Robert attended Columbia University beginning in 1997, where he graduated with dual degrees in history and economics-philosophy in just two years. The all-time high . The insurance firm brought in $40.5 billion in revenue in 2021, placing it at No. This year's Fortune 500 list was a record-breaking affair for female CEOs, with 41 woman-run companies making the cut. All Rights Reserved. 300 Most Powerful Black CEO, COO, and Other Executives in America Career The 300 Most Powerful Black CEO, COO, and Other Executive Positions in America Derek T. Dingle December 6, 2017 26011. Kenneth Fraizer, CEO of the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.. That means there are now only three Black CEOs in the Fortune 500. which trains and recruits U.S.-based Black executives for corporate boards in African countries. In March 2017, Munoz was named "Communicator of the Year for 2017" by PRWeek. The newest . 265 this year. His decades-long career at Merck has included time as its general counsel, during which he robustly defended the company against litigation stemming from the recall of painkiller Vioxx. Rice also serves on the boards of Target, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Walt Disney Co. Having just started as Boeing CFO a few months earlier, Bell stepped in to pinch-hit as interim CEO after Harry Stonecipher resigned in early 2005 over an affair with an underling. Don Thompson worked at McDonalds for 22 years before ascending to the top job in July 2012. 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