32 Years of Covering America’s Most Admired CEO, Kenneth Chenault

One of the most dynamic business leaders that BLACK ENTERPRISE has covered during the past 32 years has been American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault, who will retire on Feb. 1, 2018. During his 16-year tenure as chief executive—the longest run ever for an executive at the helm of a company listed on the Dow Jones industrial average—he has led the financial giant’s innovation, transformation, and growth. Managing through challenges such as the world-quaking events of 9/11 and the Great Recession to the industrial disruption caused by the digital revolution. Along the way, the Harvard-trained lawyer and moot court champion has demonstrated his prowess by being a powerful communicator and ubiquitous motivator who never loses sight of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. BLACK ENTERPRISE unveiled his dexterity and brilliance in our first major profile in the December 1985 issue and followed every major milestone in his career since that time. In this slideshow, you, too, can track his ascent and find out how he became, in the words of our Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves Sr., “the best CEO of his generation.”

View the slideshow for a look at BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine’s coverage of Chenault throughout the decades:

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