D-FW business leaders discuss what it takes to get on path for corner office

11:18 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2005

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

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.

JIM MAHONEY/DMN

From left: Ron McCray of Kimberly Clark, Monte Ford of AMR Corp. and Sylvester Johnson of 7-Eleven are among the D-FW area's highest-ranking black executives.

"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.

Today, there are a record four black CEOs in the Fortune 500, companies with revenue in excess of $3.6 billion. And some of the companies they head are the biggest names in global capitalism: American Express, AOL Time Warner and Merrill Lynch. Last year, Darden Restaurants, operator of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains, named a new CEO, who is also black. (Earlier this year, Chicago-based Boeing Co. named an African-American as its interim CEO.)

All four CEOs attained that distinction in the last four years.

It's been far easier for African- Americans to desegregate Corporate America's boardrooms than its executive officers' suites.

Black employees hold about 8 percent of the boardroom seats in the Fortune 500. Nationally, blacks hold just under 4 percent of the executive officer posts in publicly traded companies, says David A. Thomas, a Harvard Business School professor and author of Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America.

And in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, black employees hold less than 1 percent of the executive posts, according to an annual survey by The Dallas Morning News of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Corporations have a way very early on of identifying those that can lead at the very top of the organization," Dr. Thomas says. "And, through informal processes, those individuals are given development, they are given exposure, they are given access to networks so that when they get midpoint they start looking like the other leaders. It is rare that a woman, a Latino or an African-American is viewed that way early in their career."

Mr. McCray, tall and runner-lean, is matter-of-fact about the hurdles of skin color.

"I manage them as everyone else does, as a short man manages being short," the Kimberly Clark executive said. "I know there have been times when people had diminished expectations of me. But there is an opportunity in that. You can surprise people."

For nearly two decades, Mr. McCray has worked at Kimberly Clark, the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers and a company that had 2004 revenue flow of $15.1 billion. As a senior vice, he supervises the company's staff of 90 lawyers.

The former Cornell track team captain said he was identified about eight years ago as a potential leader, "and, everyday, I have to earn my keep."

His path in life was fractured early on, though. His father, a railroad worker who aspired to be a lawyer, died when Mr. McCray was 5 years old. His mother, who was only in her 20s, was left to rear four children, but "there was an ethos in our house that you could do whatever you wanted to, as long as it wasn't drugs or alcohol."

Mr. McCray said his runner's mind-set and discipline carries over into his work.

"I tend to be goal-oriented, which you are if you run," he said. "I tend not to set limits, which you do when you run. If you want to be world class, you work at it."

To this day, he sets out early each morning from his Preston Hollow home for a three-mile run before work.

Despite his achievements, Mr. McCray, 47, said the slow pace of progress for blacks in Dallas-Fort Worth corporations is shameful. But he is optimistic that the pipeline is filling with new business recruits.

In the mid-1980s, when Mr. McCray and his wife, Monica, then a banker, walked downtown, they were taken aback by the lack of integration in the city's center.

"It was notable to us in those early days that we could walk to a restaurant and not see one black person in a business suit, and that was very different than in New York City," Mr. McCray said. "Today ... an African-American professional is not an oddity in downtown Dallas."

Mr. Ford is part of the 11-member executive team at AMR Corp. that meets each Tuesday for a marathon meeting led by the CEO, and Mr. Ford, a senior vice president and chief information officer.

AMR was rocked by 9-11 when its planes were used as missiles in the East Coast terrorist attacks and then hard-hit by nearly a year of record fuel costs.

Mr. Ford, the chief choreographer for technology and passengers, oversees the company's network of computers programmed to manage the flow of more than 92 million passengers annually. Under his watch, the company last year introduced the 35-second self-check-in.

"Technology is so important that I can't fail," said Mr. Ford, sitting in one of the black leather chairs in his office. He lives with his wife, Ingrid, and their three children in Southlake, near D/FW International Airport.

Mr. Ford, 45, said he believes that a person is chosen for the executive track. And not looking like those who make the selections is another hurdle.

"I don't think the world is a pure meritocracy or that Corporate America is," Mr. Ford said. "A person has to be chosen. And at times, we have to fight those human forces so that those opportunities don't go only to those who those at the top feel comfortable with."

But there was a time, at the Bank of Boston, where he threatened legal action to keep an assignment he thought he'd earned.

The Northeastern University graduate and Washington, D.C., native had just been told that the bank's clients and top management might not be "comfortable" with him in the more prominent assignment.

Mr. Ford said his boss told him, "I really want you to be successful, and I don't want you to be put in a position for failure."

Mr. Ford didn't buy it. He successfully changed his boss's thinking and got the assignment.

Flash forward more than a decade. And Mr. Ford was in a position to advise on the choice of a woman for a senior post in Latin America – a region known for its macho culture.

Some questioned whether the woman should be given the job because of the way some Latin American men perceived women. But Mr. Ford lobbied for her to get the post.

"I chose to change it [the corporate culture]. I believe that part of the reason I have been successful is I have been willing to change the world," Mr. Ford said. "... I need to see that the world moves as close to a meritocracy as possible."

Mr. Ford says the mentors he has had along the way were crucial in advancing his career. They taught him everything from asking questions like an executive to negotiating an executive compensation package.

In February, Black Enterprise magazine named him one of the 75 most powerful blacks in Corporate America. Mr. Ford said the New York reception was a "validating and empowering" event.

But even that recognition of the business stars in black America brings with it acknowledgment of limits.

"There are so few of us in a world that has thousands and thousands of corporate executives," Mr. Ford said.

Mr. Johnson, the son of a maid and a janitor, grew up in segregated New Orleans. His neighborhood near Tulane University was largely black and cheek-to-jowl to an affluent white neighborhood. His Roman Catholic church, though, St. Augustine, was filled with blacks, Creoles and whites.

Mr. Johnson knew early in life "what was out there," what the mix of incomes and cultures could bring and that he wanted its "finer things." Most important, he knew he loved math.

His parents stressed education. College was crucial. They told their young son, "If you go to college, you will have tremendous opportunities."

And at St. Augustine Catholic High School, discipline reigned, establishing early certain habits.

Today, 600 employees report to the 45-year-old Mr. Johnson, vice president and controller at 7-Eleven.

Mr. Johnson cut his accounting teeth at Coopers & Lybrand, a large accounting firm that has since merged into Pricewater-houseCoopers. There the graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Bellarmine University saw something that shocked him.

It was a brush with discrimination based on color. It happened to his black roommate. A Dallas client had made it clear that it didn't want the man on the account.

Later, after he was passed over for a promotion, Mr. Johnson met with a manager for what he assumed would be an unpleasant conversation. Instead, he learned that management didn't know he wanted to be a supervisor.

At that point, Mr. Johnson said, he decided to take ownership of who he wanted to become in Corporate America. He found the right mentors and established key relationships. He tried to master its subtleties, to become more than a horn-tooter.

"There are always a decent amount of people who can do the job or do a great job. But there are reasons people rise, and it is not through normal recruitment," he said.

Mr. Johnson got a key break when a former Coopers & Lybrand boss recommended him to 7-Eleven. That was while he was vice president of finance at Belo Corp., publisher of The Dallas Morning News. Already, he'd worked at the soda pop and food giants Pepsico Inc. and Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., whose big brands are Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.

Mr. Johnson said the rise of black executives such as American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault stirs pride. And the hope of following his success.

"I've always aspired to be part of the executive-level team in some critical role in a company, whether as CFO or CEO," Mr. Johnson said. "The key is to get to the executive-level ranks."

E-mail dsolis@dallasnews.com

Black-owned businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with more than $5 million in sales:

Alliance International Assistance

Argus Services Corp.

Best Products Co.

Business Control Systems LP

Con-Real Inc.

J.O.Y. Foods Inc.

MW Logistics LLC

NuChoice Foods Inc.

On-Target Supplies & Logistics Ltd.

Pharos Capital Group LLC

PNI Transportation

Precise Food Ingredients Inc.

PrimeSource Foodservice Equipment

Qnet Inc., dba Qnet Information Services

Telecom Electric Supply Co.

The Warrior Group Inc.

The Wilkins Group Inc.

Wilson Office Interiors Inc.

SOURCE: The Dallas/Fort Worth Minority Business Development Council Inc.

Some of the organizations that serve as resources for black professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs:

Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, 2838 Martin Lurther King Jr. Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75215; 214-421-5200; www.dbcc.org

Dallas-Fort Worth Minority Development Business Council, 1000 Stemmons Tower South, 2720 Stemmons Freeway; Dallas, Texas 75207; 214-630-0747; www.dfwmbdc.com

Executive Leadership Council & Foundation, 1010 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 520, Washington, D.C. 20007; 202-298-8226; www.elcinfo.com

National Black MBA Association, 180 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill, 60601; 312-236-2622; www.nbmbaa.org

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research