Meet the 11 Black Fortune 500 CEOs leading companies with over $432 billion in combined revenues

Thasunda Brown Duckett says she learned everything she needed to know about being a CEO at a young age. The 52-year-old TIAA CEO told Wharton School graduates in 2023 that from early childhood, she honed one of her most crucial skills as a leader: her character. “What I know today, as a leader, is that I rent my title, I own my character,” she said. Duckett is the first woman to lead the $51 billion insurance company after taking the reins in 2021, and is one of only two Black women currently serving as Fortune 500 chief executives. In 1987, Duckett’s predecessor, Clifton Wharton made history as the first Black CEO of a major U.S. corporation when he took leadership of TIAA. However, despite the company’s substantial size, it was omitted from the Fortune 500 at the time. The famed annual Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue, representing approximately two-thirds of U.S. GDP. Since its debut in 1955, the Fortune 500 has tracked more than 2,000 CEO arrivals and departures. However, underrepresented groups constitute a small percentage of leadership. Women hold 11% of CEO positions on the Fortune 500 list, accounting for some 55 companies, and a total 28 chief executives have been Black. Among the current Fortune 500 cohort, only 11 companies are currently led by Black CEOs, representing just 2% of the largest U.S. corporations. It’s a record high, and has doubled since 2021. Fortune 500 companies led by Black CEOs collectively generated $427 billion in total revenues and had a combined market value of $405 billion. Today, leaders of Fortune 500 companies control $21 trillion in revenues and oversee 30.5 million employees, and while 11 Black CEOs at the top is a new record, it remains a strikingly small share of corporate leadership. In contrast, the number of Black people living in the U.S. rose to 48.3 million in 2023, up 33% from 2000, according to Pew Research Center. A 2021 McKinsey study that analyzed data from 24 companies covering