Data shows racial disparities persist in Connecticut’s top corporate ranks

During Black History Month, companies across Connecticut and the rest of the country hold events and make proclamations intended to demonstrate their support for the Black community.

But since 2016, no Black chief executive officer has led a Connecticut-headquartered company on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations. Moreover, companies’ employee data further shows the significant underrepresentation of Black executives at most of the state’s Fortune 500 firms. Those numbers underscore the extent of the work needed to fulfill corporate promises made since the turbulent summer of 2020 to better support professionals from underrepresented groups.

“I think three years might not be enough time to see change that was promised in 2020 by these large organizations,” Fred McKinney, co-founder of the Trumbull-based economic-consulting firm BJM Solutions, said in an interview. “That’s not to excuse them from what they haven’t done. It is to acknowledge that change in these very large organizations is very difficult. And these (executive) jobs don’t open up as rapidly as we think they do.”

The 2022 edition of the Fortune 500 that was published last May further highlighted the disparities. Six of those companies had a Black CEO, equaling the annual record for the number of Black Fortune 500 CEOs. But the total still equaled only 1 percent of the chief executives in that group.

In comparison, 13.6 percent of the U.S. population and 12.7 percent of Connecticut’s population identified as Black or African American, according to the most

Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media Margaret Keane, executive chairwoman of Synchrony, speaks during an event. The largest companies in Connecticut have launched numerous initiatives aimed at making their workforces more diverse. But Black professionals remain underrepresented in their top ranks.