Kenneth I. Chenault has been appointed as a board director of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway becoming the first African American to hold the position. He will replace billionaire Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. According to Black Enterprise, Chenault will be leaving the board of Facebook Inc. where he was also the first African American to sit on the digital platform’s board.
Chenault posted a farewell message on Facebook citing the reason for his departure is due to an opportunity to work with his friend, Buffet.
However, according to The Wall Street Journal, Chenault’s stepping down is due to disagreements with Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, over “governance and political policies.”
On the heels of Chenault’s departure, CFO of The Estée Lauder Companies, Tracey Travis, has been appointed to Facebook’s board making her the second African American woman to hold a position on the big tech giant’s board.
“Tracey has a strong finance and corporate leadership background, not just in her role as CFO at The Estée Lauder Companies, but also serving on the board at Accenture,” Zuckerberg told Yahoo Finance.
Black Enterprise reports that Chenault holds a strong business relationship with Buffet dating back to Chenault’s days as CEO of American Express. Under Chenault’s 17-year stint of leadership, American Express was one of Berkshire Hathaway’s largest shareholders from 2001 to 2018.
