Editor’s Note: The David Eccles School of Business is celebrating Black History Month by sharing the successes of Black business leaders who have made big impacts in the business world.
Kenneth Chenault became only the third Black CEOs of a Fortune 500 company when he took the helm of American Express from 2001 to 2018.
He was born in Mineola, New York in 1951 to a dentist father and dental hygienist mother. He was senior class president at the Waldorf School of Garden City. He earned his bachelor’s of arts in history from Bowdoin College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
He started his career at the law firm of Rogers & Wells in New York City and later became a consultant at Bain. He began his career at American Express in 1981 and became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. He became CEO in 2001 and retired in February 2018.
In January 2018, Chenault announced he would become chairman and managing director of General Catalyst Partners and also joined the board of directors of Airbnb.
He has served on the board of directors of Facebook since February 2018. In December 2018, Chenault announced would step down from his board roles at IBM and Procter & Gamble in February 2019.