A legendary Black CEO exits, with eyes fixed on his next fight

When Kenneth Frazier retires at the end of June as Merck’s CEO, the number of Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies will shrink to three.

His departure draws attention to a lingering question: Why are there still so few Black CEOs? In fact, why are Black professionals so severely underrepresented at the CEO, senior vice president and director levels in corporations in New Jersey and across the U.S.?

It’s a question Frazier will address after he steps down from the pharmaceutical giant. Last year, he co-founded OneTen, a group enlisting major companies to recruit, mentor and promote 1 million African American executives over the next decade.

That doesn’t mean, Frazier, 66, will sit by idly until he leaves Merck.

Last week, he teamed with former American Express executive Kenneth Chenault to pressure Fortune 500 companies to protest new laws in Georgia and others pending across the country that would make it more difficult for Black people to vote.

By doing so, Frazier is forcing the discussion of civil rights into corporate executive suites a year after public outcry about racial inequality and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd.

“He has shown consistently that he has so much integrity. He’s not going to be a bystander to injustice,” said Pam Newkirk, the author of “Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business” and a professor of journalism at New York University. “He’s using his platform the way you could only wish more people would. … It really takes integrity to do what he’s doing.”

Frazier declined comment for this story, but was one of the most prominent names on a letter signed by 72 Black CEOs of companies of all sizes protesting the restrictive voting laws. The letter said, “when it comes to protecting the rights of all Americans to vote, there can be no middle ground.”

Over the past decade, Frazier has cemented his place as a trailblazer. What’s equally important is that more than any recent corporate chieftain, the often-shy, soft-spoken Frazier has cultivated a reputation for taking a public stand on social issues.

He was the first to quit in protest from former President Donald Trump’s CEO Advisory Council, following Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017.

Trump’s words must have stuck a raw nerve.

Frazier’s grandfather was born enslaved in South Carolina and the retiring CEO was taught to honor that heritage with moral clarity, according to an interview he gave in 2014 to Bill George, a senior fellow at Harvard University and the former CEO of Medtronic.

“Above all, no matter what the people around you are doing, do what is right,” Frazier is quoted as saying in George’s book, Discover Your True North. “My father was very aware of the legacy of his father and our family history, and he instilled in me the responsibility to live up to the example my grandfather set by being courageous and hardworking. “

Frazier was an attorney in 1991 representing Merck in partnership negotiations with Astra Pharmaceuticals when Merck CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos offered him a job. Frazier would later publicly call Vagelos his mentor. Frazier was promoted to executive vice president in 2006 and to CEO in 2011, moves that came after he oversaw as general counsel Merck’s defense in multi-billion dollar liability suits involving the pain killer Vioxx. He is credited with reducing Merck’s exposure; the cases ultimately were settled in 2007 for $5 billion.

“He, in my opinion, saved the reputation of the company and damn near literally saved the company,” said Vagelos, who stepped down as Merck CEO in 1994 and is currently chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

As CEO, Frazier led Merck through an impressive era of profitability. He brought a series of drugs to market – Keytruda, Gardasil and Bridion among them – that doubled Merck’s shareholder value during his tenure. The company’s failure to deliver an end-use