We may have broken the ultimate barrier to diversity with the election of the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, but the ranks of minorities in top positions at Fortune 500 companies remain thin and are steadily declining.
Late Monday, Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) CEO John Thompson announced plans to retire from the post in March, but will remain on as chairman. Also planning to move out of the corner office until a replacement is found is the CEO of struggling Web portal Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Jerry Yang.
Their pending exits continue a string of other high-profile minority CEOs over the past year due to various reasons, ranging from Dick Parsons at Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), to Stan O'Neal at Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) to Alwyn Lewis at Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) and William Perez at Wrigley.
But aside from executive leadership, diversity within an organization is just as key and is embraced by many of today's CEOs. PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP) Indra Nooyi, who runs the No. 2 soft drink company, was recently quoted as saying "Having people with different backgrounds and experiences gives us marketplace insights that enable us to serve our consumers, retail customers and communities."
Current Minority Fortune 500 CEOs
- Ronald Williams, Aetna (NYSE: AET)
- Kenneth Chenault, American Express (NYSE: AXP)
- Andrea Jung, Avon Products (NYSE: )
- Fernando Aquirre, Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB)
- Vikram S. Pandit, Citigroup (NYSE: C)
- Clarence Otis, Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI)
- Rodney O'Neal, Delphi
- Antonio Perez, Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK)
- José Maria Alapont, Federal-Mogul (NASDAQ: FDML)
- Alvaro G. de Molina, GMAC
- Ramani Ayer, Hartford Financial Service (NYSE: HIG)
- Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
- Surya N. Mohapatra, Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX)
- Cristóbal I. Conde, SunGard Data Systems
- John Thompson, Symantec (will step down in March)
- Jerry Yang, Yahoo (will step down once replacement is found)
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