Kenneth I. Chenault

Kenneth I. Chenault

Board Member at Berkshire Hathaway
Company Tenure: 3 years
Education:
Bowdoin College (B.A.) Harvard University (J.D.)
Biography:

Kenneth I. Chenault stepped down from the Facebook board to join the Berkshire Hathaway board in 2020. Mr. Chenault is also a board member of Airbnb and has been since 2018 and is Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst Partners since 2018 and a board member of Guild Education since 2019. Mr. Chenault is also a board member of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Mr. Chenault served on the board of IMB from 1998 to 2019 and Proctor & Gamble from 2008 to 2019. Mr. Chenault was also a board member of The Business Council in 2011 and 2012 and served on the Executive Committee of the Business Roundtable in 2007. In 1997, Mr. Chenault was appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of American Express and in 2001 was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer until he resigned in 2018. Outside of corporate responsibilities, Mr. Chenault is currently a board member of the Council of Foreign Relations, Harvard Corporation, and the National Museum of American History and Culture and previously served on the board of directors of the NCAA.

Profile Details

Total Political Contributions More information

Republican Support
Democratic Support
$13,900 $554,900

Affiliated Companies

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway

Key Statements

"And one of the things I often say is what I've tried to do is bring that activist mentality to being in business."

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"And so when someone tells me that they have an issue with affirmative action, you got a problem with me because the reality is that we deserve that opportunity."

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"And he said, I think you're still a warrior for social justice. And as I look at technology and I look at the venture world, one is diversity and inclusion would not be a high mark there. And that is something that's really important to me."

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"I think at the end of the day, one of the biggest issues for our society is diversity and inclusion… I think it is a real problem and is embarrassing for corporate America because we should have far more representation of all different groups, genders that are at the top. And that's something that companies need to be very focused on."

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[Q&A while Chenault was CEO of AmEx]: "Has the board of American Express thought about more radical things we could do to enhance diversity and inclusion? … So accountability is critical. And I think what's important is in both of our compensation systems, people feel it in the wallet…But you can't do it unless, in fact, people see there are consequences."

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"We think ESG is absolutely critical."

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"I believe companies exist because society allows us to exist and we have a responsibility to improve society."

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"When we're doing due diligence on companies, we're going through financial due diligence, we're going through customer due diligence. But what we need to do is go through social due diligence."

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