THE HUSTLE

Boss Ladies

Black Female Execs Lead the Way for Others to the C-Suite

Ursula Burns (see her profile in The Next 10 Years, page 39), Thasunda Brown Duckett, Rosalind Brewer and Mary Winston are names that you should know. These are the few African American women who have been on the Fortune 500 list as chief executive officers (CEOs) at their companies. With this number being so low, the lack of representation of black women in Fortune 500 companies has often been discussed.

THE GOLD STANDARD

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly and privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. Created by Edgar P. Smith, the list was first published in 1955.The original Top Ten companies were General Motors, Jersey Standard, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark, Chrysler, Armour, Gulf Oil, Mobil and DuPont.

It wasn’t until 2009 that a black woman was added to the list, that being Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox from 2009 until 2016. She was also Xerox’s chairman from 2010 to 2017 and has served on the board of directors of multiple large American companies, including Uber, American Express and ExxonMobil. She was the chairman and CEO of VEON from late 2018 to early 2020 and was also a senior advisor to Teneo. In 2014, Forbes rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world. Among other civic positions, she was a leader of theWhite House STEM program from 2009 to 2016 and head of the President’s Export Council from 2015 until 2016.

Since Burns’ rise, a few others have followed in her footsteps.

THASUNDA BROWN DUCKETT, TIAA

Thasunda Brown Duckett is an American businesswoman who serves as the president and CEO of Teachers Insurance and

Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO of TIAA

Photo credit: Business Wire

Annuity Association of AmericaCollege Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA, formerly TIAACREF). TIAA is the leading provider of financial services in the academic, research, medical, cultural and governmental fields. The company serves over 5 million active and retired employees participating at more than 15,000 institutions and has $1 trillion in combined assets under management with holdings in more than 50 countries. The 104-year-old firm, founded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, had revenue of $40.45 billion in 2020.

Duckett is also a former CEO of Chase Consumer Banking,

a division of JPMorgan Chase, and a member of the board of directors of Nike. The average salary for a TIAA CEO is $20 million, which was what Roger Ferguson capped out at before he retired. Although she hasn’t disclosed her salary as the new CEO of TIAA, it’s estimated that she’s receiving as much as Ferguson did. Interestingly, in her previous role at Nike, she was making close to $300,000 per year. Born in Rochester, N.Y., she later moved to Texas with her parents, where she graduated from Sam Houston High School. She went on to the University of Houston, receiving a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing, and earned an MBA from Baylor University. She is a member of Women Inspiring Philanthropy in Arlington, Texas, and also founded and chairs The Otis and Rosie Brown Foundation to continue the legacy of her parents.

On May 1, 2021, she assumed the post of CEO of TIAA, making her the fourth black woman in history to serve as a Fortune 500 CEO and one of two female black American CEOs to lead a Fortune 500 company at the same time— another first. The other current black female CEO alongside Duckett is Rosalind G. “Roz” Brewer, the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the giant pharmaceutical retailer and manufacturer that grossed $139.5 billion in 2020. Appointed in March 2021, she is the first African American woman to become CEO of the Deerfield, Ill., conglomerate, formed after a 2014 merger between Walgreens and Alliance Boots. Prior to her ascension at Walgreens, Brewer had been group president and COO of Starbucks and CEO of Sam’s Club. She has also held various leadership positions at Walmart and Kimberly-Clark.

How powerful is Brewer? USA Today referred to her as “one of corporate America’s most prominent women and black female executives.” In 2021, she was also cited as a “highly powerful woman” by Forbes (17th out of 100 on its list) and Fortune (sixth out 50 on its list). In addition, she was named one of the 25 most influential women by the Financial Times in 2021.

Brewer’s net worth doesn’t come solely from her position as one of the few black CEOs in America, however. Her salary is reportedly only $8 million a year—not bad, but certainly nowhere near what the top earner on this list is making. Rather, her net worth also comes from stock ownership and trading.

Born in Detroit, Mich., Brewer and her four siblings became the first generation in her family to go to college. Brewer earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Spelman College in 1984. In addition, she graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Stanford Law School, and in 2006, she finished the advanced management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Brewer made history as the first African American to lead a Walmart division in 2012 when she was appointed president and CEO of Sam’s Club. Brewer modernized the company with convenient online ordering, curbside pickup, and a process that enables customers to scan products with their mobile devices during checkout.

When she was appointed CEO of Walgreens in March 2021. , she became the only black woman at the head of an S&P 500 company. Only 4 percent of board seats at S&P 500 companies are occupied by black women so Brewer is providing an important example of the value of black women executives. By accepting this position, she also solidified Walgreens Boots Alliance as the largest company ever to be run by a black woman.

Like many trailblazers, Brewer faced scrutiny and hate, with critics saying that she only advanced because of her race or that her presence is merely tokenism. When Brewer was the CEO of Sam’s Club, she received death threats after she said that diversity makes for good business, a comment that a male CEO had previously made without prompting any harsh backlash.

When Brewer became the Starbucks COO in 2017, she used her voice as a black woman to help implement proactive policies as she committed to diversity and inclusion. In 2018, while she was with the company, a Starbucks manager in Philadelphia summoned the police when two black men sat in the establishment without purchasing anything. After this incident, the company released a public apology and shut down

Roz Brewer, Walgreens CEO

Photo credit: Lucy Hewett

8,000 restaurants for one day to hold racial bias training. Although closing stores across the country for a whole day would cost the chain tens of millions in revenue, it was necessary due to the blatant racial bias in the workplace.

Her first-hand connection to this issue and the black community assured customers that this issue would not be taken lightly. “It was very personal.” Brewer told TODAY in 2021. “I saw these two young men, and what really struck me was they were the same exact age as my son, John, and I knew right away that I had to dive into this one. … This could have happened to him.”

The following year, in 2019, she was appointed to serve on Amazon’s board of directors, making her the second black woman to ever sit on the board. At the time, Brewer was the only person of color on Amazon’s 10-person board of directors, providing visibility for minorities and helping propel black females to future leadership roles. Brewer currently serves as the chairperson of the board of trustees for Spelman College, where she did her undergraduate work. She is also a board member of VillageMD, World Business Chicago, Business Roundtable and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Brewer formerly served on the board of directors for Starbucks, Amazon, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Photo credit: Melissa Key

MARY WINSTON

Mary Winston was interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond, the home-goods retailer, for seven months in 2019. She is a seasoned executive with significant governance expertise across a broad range of industries, having served on large public company boards and audit committees for many years. She has a strong background in all aspects of finance and accounting, as well as experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), corporate strategy, cost restructuring programs, corporate governance/ compliance, and investor relations/communications. Among other roles, she has served as executive vice president (EVP) and chief financial officer (CFO) at Family Dollar Stores, Inc.; senior vice president and CFO at Giant Eagle, Inc.; EVP and CFO at Scholastic Corporation; vice president (VP) and controller of Visteon Corporation; and VP, Global Financial Operations, at Pfizer Inc. in the Pharmaceuticals Group.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Wisconsin, Winston received an MBA in finance, marketing and international business from Northwestern University’s KelloggSchool of Management. She started her career as a CPA and auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co. and is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) board governance fellow. She currently serves as president at WinsCo Enterprises, Inc., a financial and board governance consulting firm. She has served on the boards of Plexus Corp. and SuperValu, Inc., and is currently a member of the boards of Acuity Brands, Inc., Domtar Corporation and Dover Corporation.

THE ROAD AHEAD

While black CEOs are becoming more commonplace, they’re stillrelatively rare. According to Fortune, less than 1 percent of all companies throughout the country have a black leader at the helm. In the history of the Fortune 500 list, there have only been 18 CEOs who have identified as black—and the peak number on the Fortune 500 list was in 2012 when six black men made the list. The numbers get even bleaker when the gender factor is weighed in. Until 2016, only one black woman—Burns— headed a Fortune 500 company. And these numbers are despite

Black people make up just 3.3% of senior and executive leaders presently working in corporate America.*

*Equal Employment Opportunity Commission/CNN

the fact that black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population. There are currently no black-majority-owned companies in the Fortune 500 rankings. In the years that have followed, we’ve seen more female Fortune 500 CEOs, but not much has changed; women are still a minority with 8.1 percent as of 2021. That’s 41 female executives out of 500 Fortune CEOs.

Despite progress over the last two decades, women face significant obstacles to advancing and remaining in executive positions. Among them is not being taken seriously. Most businesses operate on a culture of constant availability to stay competitive. From full-time employees to managers, companies expect overtime, availability for out-of-hours phone calls and emails, etc. As leaders rise in rank and responsibilities, these expectations also rise. As a result, it becomes harder for women to compete effectively with males when the extra burden of family responsibilities is factored in.

Most women today still take care of household duties, even when working a full-time job. This limits their availability and locks them out of potential leadership roles, creating a pipeline issue in the process. As such, there are fewer and fewer women as you move up the corporate ladder, with fewer women than men to replace them.

Some companies allow their staff time off for educational purposes, even paying for it. However, in today’s alwaysavailable work culture, most companies prefer part-time working arrangements. With this system, workers advance their education and skills while companies retain their workers, albeit part-time. As a result, companies don’t need to hire extra staff or train existing ones, and work continues. It seems like a win-win situation, except it’s not for women. Most graduate programs coincide with childbearing years. As such, it becomes difficult to juggle work, graduate school and family.

Another problem is that, within management functions, women are often concentrated in specific roles compared to men. According to a recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), women are more likely to work in human resources, public relations, finance and administration, rather than operations and sales, research and product management, or general management, where men dominate. This trend reflects a corporate culture that confines women to specific roles, limiting their exposure and experience, both of which are crucial for top positions. What’s surprising is that this isn’t a recent phenomenon. Networks significantly impact careers. They provide access to sponsorships, job opportunities, mentorship, referrals, reputation enhancement, etc. Ultimately your network influences how fast you can get a promotion. The problem is that men occupy most boardrooms and leadership positions. Consequently, women are less likely to have strong professional and mentorship networks, social ties or insider information. There just aren’t enough women in powerful positions. Without access to such networks, it’s hard to imagine more female CEOs.

Essentially, there is a lack of infrastructure. Boardroom quotas often seem like the best solution to gender inequality, but in actuality, one may never know. What would it take for the women who have blazed the trail to feel as if they are among those who represent Americans? Fortune 500 companies have the ability to stop overlooking African American women when it is time to promote and honor their credentials along with their white counterparts. The time is now to acknowledge these hardworking individuals and appoint them to the positions that they deserve. NPR has noted the lack of diversity among top-ranking companies in America, but little has been done to change the current corporate culture. African American women need to be in positions that have a clear trajectory to the top in order to add more names to the list. The success of Burns, Duckett, Brewer and Winston certainly proves that black women have what it takes to excel in top leadership roles.