list of the most powerful Black executives in North America. This group of executives commands presidential respect in the boardroom and have deep pockets. While some of them are household names that we all know well, some may surprise.
Pictured: Michael Lee Chin (L) and David Drummond (R)
1. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah has come a long way since her education at Tennesse State University and the Color Purple. Oprah was able to parlay hard work, intelligence, and business savvy into a net worth reportedly valued at $2.7 billion.
2. Michael Lee Chin
With an estimated net worth at $1.8 billion according to Forbes, Chin ranks #2 on our list for obvious reasons. Sometimes called the "Tiger Woods of Finance," he moved to Canada from Jamaica and ambitiously created one of the largest mutual fund companies in the country. Chin also owns a stake in National Commercial Bank Jamaica, Total Finance in Trinidad & Tobago and Columbus Communications, a cable and communications company in Barbados.
3. Kenneth Chenault
The American Express CEO and Harvard Law graduate is one of the few finance CEO's who have held onto their job during the challenging recession. That says a lot about Wallstreet’s confidence in his leadership. He is currently co-chair of the Business Roundtable, a director at IBM, and a member at the Council of Foreign Relations. He earned close to $100 million dollars in total compensation during 2007 and 2008. It’s safe to say Kenneth’s situation is "recession proof."
4. David C. Drummond
Drummond joined Google in 2002, initially as vice president of corporate development. Today, as senior vice president and chief legal officer, he leads Google's global teams for legal, government relations, corporate development and new business development. David was first introduced to Google in 1998 as a partner in the corporate transactions group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, one of the nation's leading law firms representing technology businesses. He served as Google's first outside counsel and worked with Larry Page and Sergey Brin to incorporate the company and secure its initial rounds of financing. Google has been losing some key talent and we could easily Drummond running his own company or investment firm within the next three years.
5. Charles E. Phillips, Jr.
Charles E. Phillips is President and a member of the Board of Directors for Oracle Corporation, a company with a market capitalization of $91 billion. Before joining Oracle in 2003, Phillips was with Morgan Stanley, a global investment bank. Prior to Wall Street, he served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines. Phillips holds a BS in Computer Science from the United States Air Force Academy, a JD from New York Law School, and an MBA from Hampton University. Mr. Phillips is on the boards of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, The American Museum of Natural History, New York Law School, Viacom Inc., and Morgan Stanley. In February 2009, Phillips was appointed as a member to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide President Barack Obama and his administration with advice and counsel regarding the economy.
6. Ronald A. Williams
Ronald A. Williams is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aetna Inc., a leading diversified health care benefits company, which had revenue of approximately $27.6 billion in 2007. Williams is a graduate of Roosevelt University and holds an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
7. Clarence Otis Jr.
Clarence Otis Jr. is the CEO of Darden Resturants, the largest casual dining operator in the nation with revenues of $6 billion. Otis earned a law degree at Stanford University before landomg on Wall Street as a merger and acquisitions attorney for J.P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden Restaurants in 1995 as corporate treasurer and became CEO in 2004.
8. Richard Parsons
Parsons is the current Chairman of Citigroup and a former Time Warner CEO. He reflected in 2008: "I am not a particularly ambitious person, believe it or not, and I am certainly not a driven person. I am a hard worker —I was always told by my parents that luck was the residue of hard work." —Change Nation podcast, Mar. 18, 2008
9. John W. Thompson
John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors of Symantec Corporation which has a market capitalization of $12 billion. During his 10-year tenure as chief executive officer, he helped transform Symantec into a leader in security, storage and systems management solutions delivered to a broad base of customers, from individual consumers to the largest enterprises in the world. Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master's degree in Management Science from MIT's Sloan School of Management. In addition, in May 2008 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Notre Dame University.
10. Walter Massey
Walter Massey was recently elected to the powerful position of Chairman of Bank of America, replacing Ken Lewis. Massey graduated from Morehouse College in 1958 with a BS degree in Mathematics and Physics, where he also became a member of the Psi chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Massey went on to receive his PhD in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1966. He was the director of the National Science Foundation from 1991 to 1993, was the ninth president of Morehouse College from 1995 to 2007, and formerly the Senior Provost of the University of California System. Massey serves or has served as a board member to several American corporations, including Bank of America, BP Oil, Motorola, and McDonalds. If there was a such thing as a "Black Illuminati," Massey would be one of the leaders.
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