Black women on corporate boards

Ebony, March, 2002 by Lynn Norment

FOR years, African-American women have been making strides in corporate America to gain equity in pay, position and power in the competitive world of business. At the same time, Black women also have been making inroads into corporate boardrooms, the true bastion of White male power and influence. According to a report released by the organization Catalyst, women now hold 12.4 percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies, up from 11.7 percent in 2000. Catalyst president Sheila Wellington says that 87 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least one female board director.

According to Catalyst, African-American women hold 93 board seats of the 4,862 total positions at Fortune 500 companies surveyed.

Last fall, the Executive Leadership Council, an organization of senior-level Black corporate executives, announced an initiative to improve representation of Black leadership on corporate boards. The Council reported that the total number of African-Americans on public Fortune 1000 corporate boards increased from 223 in 1992 to 342 by 1996.

Among the most experienced corporate directors is Ann Dibble Jordan, who now serves on the boards of three Fortune 500 companies in EBONY'S 1997 corporate board survey, she was a member of five boards. She and husband, powerful attorney Vernon Jordan, were on a told of 11 top boards. They now sit on nine corporate boards, maintaining their perch as the nation s most powerful board couple.

Much more should be done to get more African-Americans, women in particular, appointed to the boards of major corporations. With assistance from Catalyst and the Executive Leadership Council, EBONY compiled a list of Black women who serve on two or more Fortune 1000 company boards. Many have held or still hold top positions at major companies. Some have retired or resigned and now run their own businesses.

The brightest of corporate stars, many of these female corporate directors were educated at Black colleges and universities before earning advanced degrees from some of the nation's most acclaimed institutions. Many are married with children, though in most cases the offspring are now adults. Most appear to be guided by a desire to give back to their communities and, consequently, also serve on non-profit boards.

Board members of major corporations are paid hefty, fees for their time and expertise. Annual retainers range from $50,000 to more than $100,000, while directors may be paid generous fees for each board meeting they attend. Some corporate directors reap more than $500,000 annually from their board work.

This listing is by no means all-inclusive. Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., the distinguished president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, serves on six corporate boards. Other women featured here sit on four, three and two boards each. It must be noted that a number of additional Black women serve on the boards of at least one Fortune 500 company.

SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON, Ph.D., president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, sits on the boards of FedEx Corp., AT&T Corp., Newport News Shipbuilding, SCI Systems Inc., Sealed Air Corp. and USX Corp. The theoretical physicist and former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is also a trustee of the Brookings Institution and a life member of the board of trustees of her alma mater, M.I.T.

LINDA JOHNSON RICE, president and chief operating officer of Johnson Publishing Co. bases in Chicago, is a member of the corporate boards of Bausch & Lomb Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Omnicom Group Inc. and VIAD Corp. She also sits on the boards of the Magazine Publishers Association and the Princess Grace Foundation, in addition to serving on the board of trustees of the University of Southern California, her alma mater.

BARBARA L. BOWLES, chairman and CEO, the Kenwood Group, an equity investment advisory firm based in Chicago, sits on the boards of Black & Decker Corp., Dollar General Corp., Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Wisconsin Energy Corp. A former executive with Kraft Inc., Beatrice Companies and the First National Bank of Chicago, Bowles also sits on the boards of Hyde Park Bank and Trust Co., Children's Memorial Hospital, the Chicago Urban League and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Advisory Council.

BONNIE G. HILL, president of B. Hill Enterprises, a consulting firm in Los Angeles that specializes in corporate governance and board organizational and public policy issues, sits on the boards of AK Steel Holding Corp., Hershey Foods Corp., the Home Depot and Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. She is also COO of Icon Blue, a brand marketing company. Until July 2001, Hill was president and CEO of the Times Mirror Foundation and senior vice president of communications and public affairs for the Los Angeles Times.

RUTH J. SIMMONS, Ph.D., president of Brown University, the first African-American woman to head an Ivy League educational institution, sits on the boards of Goldman Sachs Group, Pfizer, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and Texas Instruments. The former president of Smith College and provost at Spelman College also serves on the boards of the Carnegie Corp. and several non-profit organizations, and was a member of the Advisory Council to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Millennium Scholars Program.