As a child Kenneth
Chenault was known by his parent to be exceptionally intelligent but just
didn’t seem to have the desire to excel. His parents were both academically accomplished
and had successful professions. It was while studying in a private high school
that he finally found the motivation to excel with the help of the school
head. He graduated as class president,
captain of the soccer, track, and basketball team teams.
He went on to Bowdoin College and afterwards obtained a law
degree from Harvard Law School. He spent some time as a corporate lawyer. Then
Chenault became a management consultant at Bain & Company before joining AMEX in 1981 as director of
Strategic Planning in Travel Related Services.
In 1982 he joined the low performing merchandise-services
unit and turned it sales from $100 million to $700 million in three years. From
there his stock rose. In the early 1990s
Chenault was head of the domestic consumer-card division which was floundering
and managed to turn it around. With new
programs he was able to bring in more card holders and more merchants.
Chenault was assigned to handle the U.S. Travel Services.
Along with the AMEX CEO at that time he was able to realize savings reaching $3
billion while also increasing profit and increasing the number of card
holders. For all the changes he
accomplishments Chenault was appointed vice-chairman in 1995 and became
president and COO two years later. He became AMEX CEO in 2001 and currently
holds the position.
His rise to the top was due to his outstanding performance.
What has made his achievement more notable was he is one of the few blacks to
do so.
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