The diversity of the top 50 Fortune 500 CEOs over time

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. 

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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. Here are some diversity milestones of Fortune 500 CEOs:

• 1972: Katharine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (The Washington Post).
• 1981: Roberto Goizueta became the first Hispanic/Latino man to become a Fortune 500 CEO (Coca-Cola).
• 1986: Gerald Tsai became the first East Asian male to become a Fortune 500 CEO (American Can Company).
• 1987: Clifton R. Wharton Jr., CEO of TIAA-CREF, became the first black male to be a Fortune 500 CEO (TIAA-CREF).
• 1997: Ramani Ayer was the first South Asian male to become a Fortune 500 CEO (The Hartford).
• 1999: Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, was the first East Asian Fortune 500 CEO (Avon).
• 2006: Indra Nooyi was the first South Asian Fortune 500 CEO (PepsiCo).
• 2009: Ursula M. Burns became the first black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Xerox).
• 2011: Tim Cook was the first LGBTQ+ CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Apple).
• 2017: Geisha Williams of PG&E became the first Hispanic/Latina female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (PG&E).
• 2018: Beth Ford was the first LGBTQ+ female to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Land O’Lakes).

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:

1. Walmart (United States)
2. Amazon (United States)
3. State Grid (China)
4. China National Petroleum (China)
5. Sinopec Group (China)
6. Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia)
7. Apple (United States)
8. Volkswagen (Germany)
9. China State Construction Engineering (China)
10. CVS Health (United States)

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The diversity of the top 50 companies in the Fortune 500

1980