There are only four black Fortune 500 CEOs. Here they are.
- There are only four black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, and none of them are women.
- The four black CEOs are: Kenneth Frazier of pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Marvin Ellison of home improvement retailer Lowe's, Jide Zeitlin of fashion holding company Tapestry, and Roger Ferguson, Jr. of insurance company TIAA.
- Meanwhile, only two black women have ever led an S&P 500 company: Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, and Mary Winston, the interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond for six months in 2019.
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There are only four black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, and none of them are women.
In fact, only two black women have ever led a Fortune 500 company. The first was Ursula Burns, who served as CEO of Xerox from 2009 until 2016, and as chairwoman from 2010 to 2017. Her initial appointment was more than years after the first Fortune 500 list.
The second black woman on the list was Mary Winston who, in May 2019, became the interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond. She only held the position until November of that year, when she was replaced by Mark Tritton, a white man.
The four black men currently leading Fortune 500 companies are Kenneth Frazier of pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Marvin Ellison of home improvement retailer Lowe's, Jide Zeitlin of fashion holding company Tapestry, and Roger Ferguson, Jr. of insurance company TIAA. This number is down from seven, reported less than a decade earlier.
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. The study also found an overall lack of mentorship and access to senior leaders.
Keep scrolling to learn about the four black people currently at the top of the corporate ranks, ascending from the year in which they were appointed.