The Diversity of the Top 50 Fortune 500 CEOs Over Time (2024)

Corporate America is historically known for having a majority of white male CEOs, particularly Fortune 500 CEOs. While the corporate world still has a long way to go to be more inclusive, in recent years, the C-suite executives at many corporations have become much more diverse. Qualtrics is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and as part of this mission, we took a look at the top 50 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to see how racially and gender diverse the leaders of America’s biggest companies have been through the decades.

How has the diversity of Fortune 500 companies changed over time?

Fortune 500 CEOs have overwhelmingly been white men, but in recent years, executive boards have been becoming more diverse. For instance, in 1980, all of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies’ CEOs were white men. In 2023, 37 of the top 50 companies’ CEOs were white men.

In 2023, the CEOs of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies include six white women, one Hispanic/Latino man, one Hispanic/Latina woman, three South Asian men, one black man, and one black woman.

What percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs are female?

According to Fortune, in 2023, 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs were female. About a quarter of these female CEOs became CEOs of their respective companies within the past year. Some of the female CEOs on the Fortune 500 list include Karen Lynch (CVS Health), Mary Barra (General Motors), Priscilla Almodovar (Fannie Mae), and Gina R. Boswell (Bath & Body Works).

The history of the Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list that is published by popular business magazine Fortune that ranks the largest corporations in the United States by revenue. It was officially created in 1955 by Fortune editor Edgar P. Smith. Originally, the list was comprised of companies based on revenue from manufacturing, energy exploration, and mining. The very first Fortune 500 company to top the list in 1955 was General Motors.

Fortune also produces a Global 500 list, which is the annual ranking of the top 500 companies by revenue worldwide. In 2022, the top ten companies in the Global 500 were:

Walmart (United States)
Amazon (United States)
State Grid (China)
China National Petroleum (China)
Sinopec Group (China)
Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia)
Apple (United States)
Volkswagen (Germany)
China State Construction Engineering (China)
CVS Health (United States)

The diversity of the top 50 companies in the Fortune 500

1980

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender	Race
1	Exxon	Howard C. Kauffmann	Male	White
2	General Motors	Thomas Murphy	Male	White
3	Mobil	Rawleigh Warner Jr.	Male	White
4	Ford Motor	Philip Caldwell	Male	White
5	Texaco	John Key McKinley	Male	White
6	ChevronTexaco	Harold J. Haynes	Male	White
7	Gulf Oil	Jerry McAfee	Male	White
8	IBM	Frank T. Cary	Male	White
9	General Electric	Jack Welch	Male	White
10	Amoco	John E. Swearingen	Male	White
11	ITT Industries	Rand Araskog	Male	White
12	Atlantic Richfield	Robert Orville Anderson	Male	White
13	Shell Oil	John F. Bookout	Male	White
14	U.S. Steel	David M. Roderick	Male	White
15	Conoco	Ralph E. Bailey	Male	White
16	DuPont	Irving Saul Shapiro	Male	White
17	Chrysler	Lee Iacocca	Male	White
18	Tenneco Automotive	James L. Ketelsen	Male	White
19	AT&T Technologies	Charles L. Brown	Male	White
20	Sunoco	Theodore A. Burtis	Male	White
21	Occidental Petroleum	Armand Hammer	Male	White
22	ConocoPhillips	Ralph E. Bailey	Male	White
23	Procter & Gamble	Edward Harness	Male	White
24	Dow Chemical	Paul Oreffice	Male	White
25	Union Carbide	William S. Sneath	Male	White
26	United Technologies	Harry Gray	Male	White
27	International Harvester (Navistar International)	Archie R. McCardell	Male	White
28	Goodyear Tire & Rubber	Charles J. Pilliod Jr.	Male	White
29	Boeing	Thornton Wilson	Male	White
30	Eastman Kodak	Walter A. Fallon	Male	White
31	LTV	W. Paul Thayer	Male	White
32	Standard Oil (BP America)	John E. Swearingen	Male	White
33	Caterpillar	Bob Gilmore	Male	White
34	Unocal	Fred L. Hartley	Male	White
35	Beatrice	Wallace Rasmussen	Male	White
36	RCA	Edgar H. Griffiths	Male	White
37	CBS	Thomas H. Wyman	Male	White
38	Bethlehem Steel	Lewis W. Foy	Male	White
39	Nabisco Group Holdings	Robert M. Schaeberle	Male	White
40	Xerox	Charles Peter McColough	Male	White
41	Amerada Hess (Hess Corporation)	Leon Hess	Male	White
42	Esmark	Donald P. Kelly	Male	White
43	Marathon Oil	Harold D. Hoopman	Male	White
44	Ashland	Orin E. Atkins	Male	White
45	Rockwell Automation	Robert Anderson	Male	White
46	Kraft	John Marshall Richman	Male	White
47	Cities Service Company (Citgo Petroleum)	Robert V. Sellers	Male	White
48	Monsanto	Jack Hanley	Male	White
49	Philip Morris (Altria Group)	Frank E. Resnik	Male	White
50	General Foods	James L. Ferguson	Male	White

1990

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender	Race
2	Ford Motor	Harold Arthur Poling	Male	White
3	Exxon Mobil	Lawrence G. Rawl	Male	White
4	IBM	John Fellows Akers	Male	White
5	General Electric	John Francis Welch Jr.	Male	White
6	Mobil	Allen E. Murray	Male	White
7	Altria Group (Philip Morris)	Hamish Maxwell	Male	White
8	Chrysler	Lee Iacocca	Male	White
9	DuPont	Edgar S. Woolard Jr.	Male	White
10	Texaco	Alfred C. DeCrane Jr.	Male	White
11	Chevron	Kenneth T. Derr	Male	White
12	Amoco	H. Laurance Fuller	Male	White
13	Shell Oil	Frank H. Richardson	Male	White
14	Procter & Gamble	Edwin L. Artzt	Male	White
15	Boeing	Frank Shrontz	Male	White
16	Occidental Petroleum	Ray R. Irani	Male	Middle Eastern
17	United Technologies	Robert F. Daniell	Male	White
18	Eastman Kodak	Kay Whitmore	Male	White
19	Marathon Oil (U.S. Steel)	Charles Corry	Male	White
20	Dow Chemical	Frank Popoff	Male	White
21	Xerox	Paul Allaire	Male	White
22	Atlantic Richfield	Lodwrick Cook	Male	White
23	PepsiCo	Wayne Calloway	Male	White
24	Nabisco Group Holdings	F. Ross Johnson	Male	White
25	McDonnell Douglas	John F. McDonnell	Male	White
26	Tenneco Automotive	James L. Ketelsen	Male	White
27	Digital Equipment	Ken Olsen	Male	White
28	CBS	Laurence Tisch	Male	White
29	Rockwell Automation	Donald R. Beall	Male	White
30	Conoco (ConocoPhillips)	Ralph E. Bailey	Male	White
31	Honeywell	James Renier	Male	White
32	3M	Allen F. Jacobson	Male	White
33	Hewlett-Packard	John A. Young	Male	White
34	Sara Lee	John H. Bryan	Male	White
35	International Paper	John Georges	Male	White
36	ConAgra Foods	C. Michael Harper	Male	White
37	Alcoa	Paul H. O'Neill	Male	White
38	Caterpillar	Donald V. Fites	Male	White
39	Goodyear Tire & Rubber	Tom H. Barrett	Male	White
40	Unocal	Richard Stegemeier	Male	White
41	Georgia-Pacific	T. Marshall Hahn	Male	White
42	Weyerhaeuser	George H. Weyerhaeuser Sr.	Male	White
43	Unisys	James Unruh	Male	White
44	General Dynamics	Herbert F. Rogers	Male	White
45	Martin Marietta (Lockheed Martin)	Norman R. Augustine	Male	White
46	Sun Company (Sunoco)	Robert McClements Jr.	Male	White
47	Johnson & Johnson	Ralph S. Larsen	Male	White
48	Motorola	George M.C. Fisher	Male	White
49	Anheuser-Busch	August Busch III	Male	White
50	Bristol-Myers Squibb	Richard L. Gelb	Male	White

2000

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender	Race
2	Wal-Mart Stores	Lee Scott	Male	White
3	Exxon Mobil	Lee Roy Raymond	Male	White
4	Ford Motor	Jacques Albert Nasser	Male	Middle Eastern
5	General Electric	John Francis Welch Jr.	Male	White
6	IBM	Louis Vincent Gerstner Jr.	Male	White
7	Citigroup	Sanford I. Weill	Male	White
8	AT&T	Edward Whitacre Jr.	Male	White
9	Altria Group (Philip Morris)	Geoffrey C. Bible	Male	White
10	Boeing	Harry Stonecipher	Male	White
11	Bank of America Corp.	Hugh McColl	Male	White
12	SBC Communications	Edward Whitacre Jr.	Male	White
13	Hewlett-Packard	Carly Fiorina	Female	White
14	Kroger	Joseph A. Pichler	Male	White
15	State Farm Insurance Cos.	Edward B. Rust Jr.	Male	White
16	Sears Roebuck	Arthur C. Martinez	Male	White
17	American Intl. Group	Maurice R. Greenberg	Male	White
18	Enron	Kenneth Lay	Male	White
19	TIAA-CREF	John Biggs	Male	White
20	Compaq Computer	Michael Capellas	Male	White
21	Home Depot	Robert Nardelli	Male	White
22	Lucent Technologies	Rich McGinn	Male	White
23	Procter & Gamble	Durk Jager	Male	White
24	Albertson's	Gary G. Michael	Male	White
25	MCI WorldCom	Bernard Ebbers	Male	White
26	Fannie Mae	Franklin Raines	Male	Black
27	Kmart Holding	Charles Conaway	Male	White
28	Texaco	Peter Bijur	Male	White
29	Merrill Lynch	David Komansky	Male	White
30	Morgan Stanley	Philip J. Purcell	Male	White
31	Chase Manhattan Corp.	William B. Harrison Jr.	Male	White
32	Target	Bob Ulrich	Male	White
33	Bell Atlantic (Verizon Communications)	Ivan Seidenberg	Male	White
34	Merck	Raymond Gilmartin	Male	White
35	ChevronTexaco	Dave O'Reilly	Male	White
36	J.C. Penney	Allen Questrom	Male	White
37	Motorola	Christopher Galvin	Male	White
38	McKesson	John Hammergren	Male	White
39	Intel	Craig Barrett	Male	White
40	Safeway	Steven Burd	Male	White
41	Ingram Micro	Kent B. Foster	Male	White
42	DuPont	Charles O. Holliday	Male	White
43	Johnson & Johnson	Ralph S. Larsen	Male	White
44	Costco Wholesale	James Sinegal	Male	White
45	Time Warner	Gerald M. Levin	Male	White
46	UPS	Jim Kelly	Male	White
47	Allstate	Ed Liddy	Male	White
48	Prudential Financial	Arthur F. Ryan	Male	White
49	Aetna	John Rowe	Male	White
50	Bank One Corp.	Jamie Dimon	Male	White

2010

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender	Race
1	Wal-Mart Stores	William S. Simon	Male	White
2	Exxon Mobil	Rex Tillerson	Male	White
3	Chevron	John S. Watson	Male	White
4	General Electric	Jeffrey Robert Immelt	Male	White
5	Bank of America Corp.	Brian Thomas Moynihan	Male	White
6	ConocoPhillips	James Mulva	Male	White
7	AT&T	Randall Lynn Stephenson	Male	White
8	Ford Motor	Alan Mulally	Male	White
9	J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	Jamie Dimon	Male	White
10	Hewlett-Packard	Mark Hurd	Male	White
11	Berkshire Hathaway	Warren Buffett	Male	White
12	Citigroup	Vikram Shankar Pandit	Male	South Asian
13	Verizon Communications	Ivan Seidenberg	Male	White
14	McKesson	John Hammergren	Male	White
15	General Motors	Edward Whitacre Jr.	Male	White
16	AIG	Bob Benmosche	Male	White
17	Cardinal Health	George S. Barrett	Male	White
18	CVS Caremark	Thomas Ryan	Male	White
19	Wells Fargo	John Stumpf	Male	White
20	IBM	Samuel J. Palmisano	Male	White
21	UnitedHealth Group	Stephen Hemsley	Male	White
22	Procter & Gamble	A.G. Lafley	Male	White
23	Kroger	David Dillon	Male	White
24	AmerisourceBergen	R. David Yost	Male	White
25	Costco Wholesale	James Sinegal	Male	White
26	Valero Energy	William R. Klesse	Male	White
27	Archer Daniels Midland	Patricia A. Woertz	Female	White
28	Boeing	James McNerney	Male	White
29	Home Depot	Frank Blake	Male	White
30	Target	Gregg Steinhafel	Male	White
31	WellPoint (Elevance Health)	Angela Braly	Female	White
32	Walgreens	Greg Wasson	Male	White
33	Johnson & Johnson	William C. Weldon	Male	White
34	State Farm Insurance Cos.	Edward B. Rust Jr.	Male	White
35	Medco Health Solutions	David B. Snow Jr.	Male	White
36	Microsoft	Steve Ballmer	Male	White
37	United Technologies	Louis R. Chênevert	Male	White
38	Dell	Michael Dell	Male	White
39	Goldman Sachs Group	Lloyd Blankfein	Male	White
40	Pfizer	Jeff Kindler	Male	White
41	Marathon Oil	Clarence P. Cazalot Jr.	Male	White
42	Lowe's	Robert Niblock	Male	White
43	UPS	Scott Davis	Male	White
44	Lockheed Martin	Robert J. Stevens	Male	White
45	Best Buy	Brian J. Dunn	Male	White
46	Dow Chemical	Andrew Liveris	Male	White
47	Supervalu	Craig Herkert	Male	White
48	Sears Holdings	W. Bruce Johnson	Male	White
49	International Assets Holding (StoneX Group Inc.)	Sean O'Connor	Male	White
50	PepsiCo	Indra Nooyi	Female	South Asian

2023

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender	Race
1	Walmart	Douglas McMillon	Male	White
2	Amazon.com	Andrew R. Jassy	Male	White
3	Exxon Mobil	Darren W. Woods	Male	White
4	Apple	Timothy D. Cook	Male	White
5	UnitedHealth Group	Andrew P. Witty	Male	White
6	CVS Health	Karen S. Lynch	Female	White
7	Berkshire Hathaway	Warren E. Buffett	Male	White
8	Alphabet	Sundar Pichai	Male	South Asian
9	McKesson	Brian S. Tyler	Male	White
10	Chevron	Michael K. Wirth	Male	White
11	AmerisourceBergen	Steven H. Collis	Male	White
12	Costco Wholesale	Craig Jelinek	Male	White
13	Microsoft	Satya Nadella	Male	South Asian
14	Cardinal Health	Jason Hollar	Male	White
15	Cigna Group	David M. Cordani	Male	White
16	Marathon Petroleum	Michael J. Hennigan	Male	White
17	Phillips 66	Mark Lashier	Male	White
18	Valero Energy	Joseph W. Gorder	Male	White
19	Ford Motor	Jim Farley	Male	White
20	Home Depot	Ted Decker	Male	White
21	General Motors	Mary T. Barra	Female	White
22	Elevance Health	Gail K. Boudreaux	Female	White
23	JPMorgan Chase	Jamie Dimon	Male	White
24	Kroger	Rodney McMullen	Male	White
25	Centene	Sarah M. London	Female	White
26	Verizon Communications	Hans E. Vestberg	Male	White
27	Walgreens Boots Alliance	Roz Brewer	Female	Black
28	Fannie Mae	Priscilla Almodovar	Female	Hispanic/Latina
29	Comcast	Brian L. Roberts	Male	White
30	AT&T	John T. Stankey	Male	White
31	Meta Platforms	Mark Zuckerberg	Male	White
32	Bank of America	Brian Moynihan	Male	White
33	Target	Brian C. Cornell	Male	White
34	Dell Technologies	Michael S. Dell	Male	White
35	Archer Daniels Midland	Juan R. Luciano	Male	Hispanic/Latino
36	Citigroup	Jane Fraser	Female	White
37	UPS	Carol B. Tome	Female	White
38	Pfizer	Albert Bourla	Male	White
39	Lowe's	Marvin R. Ellison	Male	Black
40	Johnson & Johnson	Joaquin Duato	Male	White
41	FedEx	Raj Subramaniam	Male	South Asian
42	Humana	Bruce D. Broussard	Male	White
43	Energy Transfer	Thomas E. Long	Male	White
44	State Farm Insurance	Michael L. Tipsord	Male	White
45	Freddie Mac	Michael Devito	Male	White
46	PepsiCo	Ramon L. Laguarta	Male	White
47	Wells Fargo	Charles W. Scharf	Male	White
48	Walt Disney	Robert A. Chapek	Male	White
49	ConocoPhillips	Ryan M. Lance	Male	White
50	Tesla	Elon Musk	Male	White

Fortune 500 CEO Firsts

Rank	Company	CEO	Gender
First Female	Katharine Graham	The Washington Post	1972
First Hispanic/Latino Male	Roberto Goizueta	Coca-Cola	1981
First East Asian Male	Gerald Tsai	The American Can Company	1986
First Black Male	Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.	TIAA-CREF	1987
First South Asian Male	Ramani Ayer	The Hartford	1997
First East Asian Female	Andrea Jung	Avon	1999
First South Asian Female	Indra Nooyi	PepsiCo	2006
First Black Female	Ursula M. Burns	Xerox	2009
First Openly LGBTQ+ Male	Tim Cook	Apple	2011
First Hispanic/Latina Female	Geisha Williams	PG&E	2017
First Openly LGBTQ+ Female	Beth Ford	Land O'Lakes	2018

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