(from: dallasnews.com)
In 1987, Ron McCray, a young corporate attorney with a freshly minted Harvard Law degree, gathered other black attorneys working at big Dallas law firms for a party at his home.
All seven of them,” Mr. McCray recalls from his expansive office atop the Irving headquarters of consumer-products giant Kimberly Clark Corp.
Today, Mr. McCray is once again in a very small group of black professionals – those who’ve made it to an executive officer perch of a publicly traded corporation based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They help chart strategy, monitor performance and hold clout in American capitalism.
The Kimberly Clark executive, the senior vice president for law and government affairs, is part of the progress, albeit halting, of black executives into the corner offices of Corporate America.
Among the other highest-ranking executive officers in the D-FW area are Monte Ford and Sylvester Johnson.
Mr. Ford is chief information officer at the $18.6 billion AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines.
Mr. Johnson is vice president and controller at the $12.2 billion 7-Eleven Inc., the world’s largest convenience store retailer.
Despite their ascendancy, all three men say that Corporate America isn’t close to being a meritocracy and that placing yourself, or getting placed, on the path of “being chosen” for the executive suite requires brains, mentoring and the right contacts (more…)
