Walking The Talk

Merck CEO Ken Frazier is one of four Black chief executives leading America’s largest publicly traded companies, and he’s aware of the responsibility this confers. “If you’re complacent with the status quo, you’re complicit in the structural racism and inequality that the status quo hides,” he says. In July, the New Jersey–based pharmaceutical giant—which is developing two Covid-19 vaccines and tops its industry on this year’s Just 100—stopped advertising on Facebook and Instagram, calling on the platforms to “stop hate speech, racism and discrimination.” Internally, underrepresented groups accounted for 36% of new hires in 2018, up from 22% four years earlier, and women make up 49% of its workforce. “Our goal is to ensure that the diversity of our employees mirrors the external world and our patients,” Frazier says. “We have to do more, and do better.”