The Fortune 500 list for 2021 will go down in history as being the first to list two black, female, CEO's on it.
The 67th edition of the Fortune 500 features Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Thasunda Brown Duckett, the CEO of TIAA. The two women are in the top 100 on the list after transitioning into chief executive roles at the beginning of this year (ABC News).
According to CNN, the two women are a part of only 3.3% of Black people making up senior and executive leaders in corporate America. Making this list even more historic.
Brewer was a former Starbucks executive before being appointed CEO of Walgreens in March, whereas Brown Fuckett took over TIAA as CEO in February after being the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking.
“It does not escape me that I am standing on the shoulders of giants, including the cooks and janitors and others who look like me and were first to enter corporate America,” Brown Duckett said told ABC. “They created the space for me to have this opportunity. My hope is that corporate America realizes that talent is created equally but opportunity is not, and we all acknowledge that there’s still more work to be done.”
In addition to this amazing moment for Black women, the 2021 Fortune 500 has the most female CEO's in history with 41 total!