How many Fortune 500 companies do you think have a Black woman as their board chair? The answer: just one.
Lynn Crump-Caine became chair of the board of the financial services firm Thrivent at the beginning of this year. A 30-year alum of McDonald’s, she had served on Thrivent’s board for a decade before being elevated to chair in January. And she already has a wealth of experience as chair of other organizations: she’s also chair of the board at the fast-food chain Wingstop, which is a public company (but not part of the Fortune 500), and she has chaired the nonprofit Advocate Health Care.
Crump-Caine joined a rarified group. Even more so than Black female Fortune 500 CEOs, Black female board chairs are exceedingly rare. Ursula Burns, who became the first Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company when she took over Xerox, also served as the company’s chair. When Mellody Hobson became chair of the board at Starbucks in 2021, she was the only Black woman chairing a Fortune 500 company. (Hobson stepped down as chair in 2024 and left the Starbucks board the next year.)
Across the Russell 3000, women of color held 7.3% of board seats in the first quarter of this year, 50/50 Women on Boards reported. As of tomorrow, the Fortune 500 will have three Black female CEOs when Karen S. Carter officially takes over Dow.
