Fortune has been ranking the 500 largest US companies by revenue and the 2,000-plus CEOs who have led them since 1955. Although the number of Black CEOs on the list has increased, only 28 of the chief executives on the list have been Black, according to Fortune. Nine Black CEOs made the 2025 Fortune 500 list, with only two of them being Black women. Altogether, the nine companies they lead made up $244.76 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2024. Who are the nine Black CEOs that lead the Fortune
Walgreens Boots Alliance has announced the departure of its CEO, Rosalind Brewer. According to Bloomberg, Brewer was the sole remaining Black female CEO of an S&P 500 company; the last Black woman to lead an S&P 500 company was Ursula Burns, who left Xerox in 2016. Like many retailers, Walgreens faced challenges this year as the demand for COVID-19 testing and vaccines declined, and retail sales experienced a slowdown. Brewer’s departure is part of the company’s transition into a healthcare company instead of a drugstore. According to CNBC, shares of
Chris Womack has become president and CEO of Southern Company, joining a small group of Black chief executives leading major publicly traded corporations. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is a prominent energy provider, generating $22.4 billion in annual revenue in 2021, and through its subsidiaries, it serves approximately 9 million customers. Three Decades of experience A 35-year company veteran, Womack previously was chairman, president, and CEO of Georgia Power, the Southern Company’s largest subsidiary. Before that, the Greenville, Alabama native was executive vice president and president of external affairs for Southern
