From Craig Arnold To Robert F. Smith, 10 Black CEOs In US

People of Color Making History

A company's future depends on various factors, including the leadership. Inclusivity is crucial when picking the right leaders to drive businesses. While the number of top bosses and CEOs belonging to different ethnicities and minority representation is slowly growing, there are still only a handful of companies that are being led by people of color. In 2022, there were only six companies on the Fortune 500 list with Black CEOs. Today that number has risen to eight. Here's a look at America's top Black CEOs. 

1. Craig Arnold: Eaton

The power management company Eaton is led by Craig Arnold, who has invested close to $8 billion in mergers and acquisitions of companies since he was recruited to his C-level role in 2016. Arnold is known for focusing on crucial transformation skills that are known to work in the industrial sector. As per Seeking Alpha, Arnold's long-term objective is "building a new $2 billion to $4 billion eMobility business inside of Eaton." As of 2023, Arnold has a net worth of $122.05 million.

2. Rosalind "Roz" Brewer: Walgreens Boots Alliance

Rosalind "Roz" Brewer, the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, spent nearly 20 years honing her skills at Kimberly Clarke before moving to Starbucks and Walmart. She is also the only Black woman to sit on Amazon's board, as per Forbes. She was also the CEO of Sam's Club. As of 2023, Rosalind Brewer's net worth is somewhere around $59.77 million. According to the US Security and Exchange Commission, she has invested most of her wealth in the stock market. 

3. Thasunda Brown Duckett: TIAA

Thasunda Brown Duckett is the former CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, which is a division of JP Morgan, and also a member of the board of directors of Nike.  In 2021, she became the CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), which made her the fourth Black woman in history to serve a Fortune 500. TIAA, the company, is more than 100 years old and focuses on improving the retirement system for teachers.

4. Marvin Ellison: Lowe

Marvin Lowe is an American business executive, who is the president and CEO of Lowe. He was previously the CEO of JCPenney. He was an executive at Home Depot and was in charge of the company's US stores until he was hired by JCPenney where he made progress when it came to recovering the company's lost profitability. As of 2023, Marvin Ellison's net worth is somewhere around $18.3 Million.

5. Janice Bryant Howroyd: ActOne

The self-made woman had only $1500 when she started the company ActOne, which is a workforce solutions company. Today, the company has generated close to $3 billion of revenue and operates in 19 countries with more than 2,600 employees and 17,000 clients worldwide. The company is the largest privately owned company which is led by a woman. She is also an ambassador of the Department of Energy's Minorities in Energy Initiative and a board member of numerous organizations. As of 2023, Janice Bryant Howroyd's net worth is $620 million.

6. Paul Mola: Roswell Biotechnologies

Paul Mola has been the founder, president, and CEO of Roswell Biotechnologies. He founded the company in 2014. He has worked closely with his long-time partner and now chief scientific officer Barry Merriman on their sequencing technology. Roswell's all-electronic chip platform is made for next-generation sequencing and molecular diagnostics. He has raised more than $50 million in financing for major technologies.

7. David L Rawlinson

He is the president and CEO of Qurate Retail Group, a media conglomerate controlled by company chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of voting shares. In 2021, the company generated approximately $14 billion in revenue and served more than 20 million clients spread across seven countries. He was earlier the CEO of Neilson IQA, president of Grainger Global Online, and held various executive positions with ITT Elexis. He was also a White House Fellow under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He served as a senior advisor for the White House National Economic Council under the Obama administration. 

8. Jen Nwankwo: 1910 Genetics

Nwankwo is the founder of 1910 Genetics as well as a biotech company that focuses on eliminating the timeline of drug development so that doctors can come up with new innovative therapies and give them to patients in need. The company merges biological automation and automated tools in order to better the drug discovery system. Nwankwo's dissertation inspired her to start the company. In 2021, the company raised close to $26 million in capital funding to move forward with one of the most advanced biological technologies in the entire world.

9. Robert F. Smith: Vista Equity Partners

Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, Robert F. Smith focuses his investments on software and technology companies. He made headlines when he paid off the student debt of everyone in the Morehouse College graduating class that year. In the coming year, he admitted to evading taxes on more than $200 million in income and agreed to pay $139 million in fines. The agreement was made with the IRS in order to avoid prosecution. As of 2023, his net worth is somewhere around $9 billion. 

10. Ursula Burns:  Xerox

Ursula Burns was the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016. She turned the company known for making paper copies into a viable and profitable business. She is the first African-American woman to lead S&P 500 company. In 2015, she helped generate $18 billion in revenue. She has stepped down after the company split into two public companies, Conduent, a $7 billion business process outsourcing company within a tax-free structure, and the new Xerox, as per Forbes.