There’s no denying that women have a long road ahead before our contributions to the workforce are equally valued as our male colleagues’. This is especially true for women of color, as we make up “only 1.1 percent of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies,” according to Catalyst. With such a low figure that is both alarming and devastating, we are immensely proud every time one of our own overcomes the vast barriers and leaves her imprint in the boardroom. The following ladies are sacrifice personified as the first ever to take on their current executive roles. Because of them, the doors for black women have been opened a little wider. Honor these first ladies in Corporate America with BlackEnterprise.com on the following pages.
[Related: Brains and Beauty: Blake Von D on Law School, Fashion and Self-Worth]
Ursula M. Burns, Xerox
Ursula Burns is Chairman and Chief Executive Offiver of Xerox, the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. Burns first started with the company in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern. She assumed multiple positions, including Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategic Services in 2000. In 2009, Ursula became the first African American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. The trailblazing boss earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a masters in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
Rosalind Brewer, Walmart
Rosalind Brewer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sam’s Club, making her the first woman and first African American to lead a Walmart division. Brewer is an advocate for Sam’s Club’s numerous small business members and she also focuses on e-commerce growth to better convenience the customers. She joined Walmart in 2006 as Regional Vice President, overseeing operations in Georgia. Before Walmart, Rosalind Brewer
worked at Kimberly-Clark Corp. for 22 years, climbing her way to President of the Global Nonwovens Sector in 2004. She’s an HBCU alum with a bachelor’s in chemistry from Spelman College. Later she entered the advanced management program at The Wharton School and graduated from Director’s College at the University of Chicago School of Business/Stanford School of Law.Lisa Jeffries Caldwell, Reynolds American, Inc.
Lisa Jeffries Caldwell is Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Reynolds American and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, making history as the first African American to fulfill the role within the companies. Her responsibilities entail driving a high performance culture leading to a transformation of the tobacco industry. Caldwell also takes on substantial financial responsibility with a budgetary accountability over $20 million, plus a $125 million fringe budget accountability and $5 billion pension investment committee accountability. The EVP graduated from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a bachelor of science in business administration and she also received her JD from the Wake Forest University School of Law.
See more women of power players in our list of CFOs here.