AmEx CEO To Give HBS Class Day Talk

American Express Company (AMEX) CEO Kenneth I. Chenault was listed in Ebony Magazine’s 1995 ranking of the 50 most influential African-American figures in the last half-century, and today, he will address a group of graduates who may some day go on to leave their own marks on the business world.

A 1976 graduate of the Law School, Chenault was named as one of four black leaders of Fortune 500 companies in 2004. He has gone from being a “pathfinder,” as Ebony called him, to a staple of the financial world, responsible for the rejuvenation of one of the world’s top financial firms.

He will take the stage this afternoon at Harvard Business School (HBS) to address graduates of the Class of 2007, parents, and alumni as part of the Class Day ceremony.

Chenault is president of AMEX and has chaired the board of directors since 2001. He is credited with reorienting AMEX’s financial focus, increasing its market share and winning back clients by cutting fees, according to BusinessWeek.

In fiscal year 2006, Chenault netted $1.1 million in salary and nearly six times that in bonuses, according to Forbes.com.

Originally from New York City, Chenault graduated magna cum laude in history from Bowdoin College in 1973 and then moved to Cambridge to attend law school.

Armed with his HLS degree, Chenault worked for a brief time as an attorney at Rogers & Wells before crossing the line into the financial world as a management consultant for Bain & Co., where he worked until 1981.

Since then, he has been a part of AMEX, where he rose in the ranks, occupying various directorial positions in the sub-divisions of the giant before taking over as president in 1993.

Selected by the Student Class Day Committee of HBS to be “motivational and inspirational, and appealing to graduates and their guests,” Chenault’s name figured on a shortlist of about five names that was proposed to the administration in the planning phase, according to an e-mail from Associate Director of Student and Academic Services Kelly P. Diamond.

In coordination with the University Marshal’s Office and the HBS Dean’s Office, he was selected as the prime candidate, Diamond wrote.

The committee has not reviewed his speech, said Diamond, who added that she does not know what the subject of his address will be.

—Staff writer Noah S. Bloom can be reached at nsbloom@fas.harvard.edu.