When I opened the Washington Post today, I must admit I was struck by the story indicating that Richard Parsons would be stepping down from his post as CEO of Time Warner.  I was struck not by the fact of his stepping down, but rather because his departure, coupled with the departure of Stanley O'Neal, means that the number of black people who serve as CEO of a Fortune 500 company would drop to four.   To my surprise, MSNBC also was struck by this phenomenon, and hence has a story on the impact of the departure of these two leaders, and the fact that it not only reflects a decline in the number of black CEOs, but also that it reflects the basic lack of such CEOs--so my musings were mirrored in the minds of some others.

To be sure, the fact that these two leaders are departing may simply reveal the difficulties of serving as CEO, regardless of race.  Moreover, these two CEOs are departing under dramatically different circumstances.  Then too, as the MSNBC story points out, studies indicate that there are many reasons why blacks have not advanced to the highest post in corporate America, some of which involve race and others of which are more nuanced.

Yet these two departures highlight the fact that the number of black CEOs is relatively small, and in the space of a couple of days, that number dropped by 30%.  And hence, even though the departures are unrelated and triggered by drastically different concerns, it is something that caught my attention.

Corporate Law

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