Ken Chenault Becomes First Black Director at Berkshire Hathaway After Leaving Facebook

In March, former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault announced his departure from Facebook’s board.

On the same day, Chenault made his announcement, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed the nomination of Chenault to its board, which made him the first African American to serve as a director in Berkshire. According to the announcement, Chenault replaced Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp.

During his time with Facebook, Chenault was also the first African American to serve on the social media giant’s board of directors, however, declined to seek re-election on the board due to “governance and political policies,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Facebook plays an important role in the lives of people around the world. During the time I served on the board, the company made progress in dealing with new challenges and continues its reach and to grow as a business…,” Chenault said.

Chenault explained part of his reason for leaving Facebook for Berkshire Hathaway was because he wanted to “have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work more closely with… Warren Buffet, the Berkshire Hathaway board and management team.” Adding that he believes “good corporate governing entails limiting the number of board commitments for any director.”

Following his departure from Facebook, Chenault was immediately replaced by Tracey Travis, the CEO of Estee Lauder, making her the second African American woman to be included in the social media and tech giant’s board.

“Tracey has a strong finance and corporate leadership background, not just in her role as CFO at The Estee Lauder Companies, but also serving on the board at Accenture,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Yahoo Finance.

Chenault’s nomination to Berkshire’s board was a “unanimous choice” after the governance committee had scrutinized 23 candidates as replacement for Bill Gates, according to Reuters.

Warren Buffett and Chenault have known each other since Chenault served as the CEO travel and financial service leader American Express. During Chenault’s 17-year tenure, American Express was one of Berkshire Hathaway’s largest shareholder.