Black Fortune 500 CEOs reach record high number

It’s the summer of 2020. Social justice protests are sweeping the nation after George Floyd’s murder, and company after company is pledging to improve diversity in its leadership ranks. Just four Black executives lead Fortune 500 companies.

Fast-forward to 2023. Eight Black CEOs helm companies on Fortune’s ranking—the highest since the 500’s debut in 1955.

Two Black executives join the ranking for the first time. Calvin Butler Jr. was named CEO of Exelon (No. 218) in December 2022. He previously served as chief operating officer and held other leadership positions at the energy provider and its subsidiaries. Southern Company CEO Christopher Womack is the newest entrant to the group of top Black executives, officially starting his tenure at the gas and electric utility company on May 24. Womack has worked at the Atlanta-based company (No. 138) since 1988, most recently serving as chairman, president, and CEO of Georgia Power, Southern’s largest subsidiary.

Another CEO, René Jones of M&T Bank, returns to the ranking in 2023 after the bank dropped from the 2022 list due to a revenue slump. This year, the Buffalo-based bank, which Jones has led since 2017, placed at No. 439.

As these executives join the 500 ranks, another departs. Robert Reffkin, Compass’s founder-CEO, fell off the 2023 list just one year after his company’s debut at No. 495. The real estate platform, still run by Reffkin, dropped to No. 572 after facing significant cash burn and a turbulent housing market, resulting in a 6% revenue dip from 2021. Yet the company could see an ascension on subsequent Fortune 500 lists: Following several cost-cutting efforts, including multiple layoffs, Reffkin expects Compass to have positive cash flow by the end of this year’s second quarter.

Though this record-high number is worth celebrating, Black CEOs make up just 1.6% of all Fortune 500 CEOs, far below Black America’s 13% labor force participation rate.

“There are a plethora of talented, qualified, extraordinary leaders who happen to be Black. It’s never a surprise when they advance to the C-suite, or even to the CEO position,” says Laura Morgan Roberts, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Black CEOs are more educated than their white peers yet face higher expectations to “prove” their qualifications, according to a 2022 study published in the Strategic Management Journal. “It says more about the company’s and the board of directors’ ability to recognize, develop, and advance talent from all backgrounds than it says about the representation of leaders themselves,” Roberts says.

Gender diversity among Black CEOs leaves much to be desired. Of the 25 Black executives to have led Fortune 500 companies, only four are women. Yet there are plenty of opportunities for companies to grow that share, including sponsorship, high-potential leadership development programs, and inclusive leadership skills training for majority groups in the workforce.

Historically, Black professionals have had less access to sponsorship programs and P&L responsibilities than their white counterparts, which are vital stepping stones to the corner office.

“If you’re trying to move people to the C-suite, you have to give people different experiences, and they need mentors. All of those things are so critical to the development of leaders,” says Gale King, executive chair of the Executive Leadership Council, a membership and leadership development nonprofit for Black executives. “Organizations cannot be passive; they have to be very active. It’s the long game in developing talent for the future.”

Organizations also have to challenge their assumptions about leadership. Boards and deciding parties on CEO succession often rely on prototypes of effective leadership that factor in attributes like skill set, personality, interaction style, and relationships with internal and external stakeholders. These marks of a quality leader have traditionally skewed white.

“There are a plethora of Black leaders who are qualified for CEO positions, but they aren’t selected for those positions because they don’t necessarily have the relationships or fit the prototype of who the next CEO for said corporation should be,” says Roberts.

She adds that in today’s sociopolitical environment, where “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” sentiments seemingly grow louder by the day, attacks on DEI efforts could have a “chilling effect on corporations’ and schools’ willingness to continue to invest in DEI efforts—the same efforts that help to advance and include leaders from non-white, non-male backgrounds.”

Already, companies are cutting back on their diversity spending, which could impact how employees, customers, and investors perceive the organization and its brand, says King. While this trend is concerning, she’s optimistic that companies still see the value in investing in DEI and robust leadership pipelines.

Certainly, within the Fortune 500, continued investment means ensuring the practices that support Black executives’ acceleration to CEO not only remain but also expand.

“If you have strong processes, systems, [and] checks and balances in place, and you continue to do that, the talent will rise to the top,” King says.

Below are the Black CEOs on the 2023 Fortune 500 list and their company’s rank: