What Is Kenneth Chenault's Net Worth & Salary?
Kenneth Chenault is an American business executive who has a net worth of $200 million. Kenneth Chenault is best known for being the CEO of American Express, a position he held from 2001 to 2018. He was the third African American to be chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company. After retiring from American Express, Chenault became a managing director for General Catalyst Partners. He is a member of the board of directors of Airbnb and Berkshire Hathaway and was previously on the board of Facebook.
Salary
While serving as CEO of American Express, Chenault earned approximately $370 million in total compensation. For example, in 2007, Kenneth earned a total compensation of $50,126,585. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $42,752,461. In 2009, he earned a total compensation of $16,617,639, which included a base salary of $1,201,923, a cash bonus of $10,450,000, an option grant of $3,985,637, and other compensation worth $980,079.
Real Estate
In 1991, the Chenaults paid $937,500 for a home in New Rochelle, New York. They sold this home in September 2017 for $1.9 million. In New York City, they own a triplex penthouse in a building called Amory S. Carhart mansion, where single-unit penthouses have sold for $20-30 million. In March 2001, they paid $7.45 million for a 7,500-square-foot mansion set on 4.6 acres in Sag Harbor, New York.
Down in Florida, the Chenaults own two units in a luxury Bal Harbour building. They bought their first unit in 2013 for $6.9 million and their second unit in 2017 for $6.3 million.
Early Life
Kenneth Irvine Chenault was born on June 2, 1951, in Mineola, New York. His father, Hortenius Chenault, was a dentist, and his mother was a dental assistant. Kenneth attended the Waldorf School of Garden City, on Long Island, New York, and Bowdoin College, a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. Chenault then earned a Doctor of Law degree from Harvard Law School, a private Ivy League school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Career
From 1977 to 1979, Kenneth worked as an associate at Rogers & Wells, a law firm that was founded in New York City in 1873. From 1979 to 1981, he was employed as a consultant at the management consulting firm of Bain & Company, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1981, Chenault worked for American Express, a bank holding company and financial services corporation, in its Strategic Planning Group. He became president and operating chief officer of the company in 1997 and chief executive officer in 2001, making him the third African American CEO of a Fortune 500 Company.
In October 2017, Kenneth publicly announced his retirement from American Express. The following year, he announced that he would be taking on the roles of chairman and managing director at the global venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners.
Kenneth Chenault / Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Boards
Among the professional boards that Chenault has served on are the executive committee of the Business Roundtable, a non-profit lobbyist association; and as an executive committee member of the Business Council, a nonpartisan organization of business leaders who engage in high-level policy discussions.
In 2014, Kenneth was elected to Harvard Corporation, one of Harvard University's two governing boards. In 2017, Chenault was named chairman of the advisory council for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. That same year, he joined the Airbnb Incorporated board of directors, the Facebook board of directors, and the Berkshire Hathaway board of directors.
Kenneth publicly announced in 2018 that he would be resigning from the boards that he served on at International Business Machines Corporation in New York and Proctor & Gamble in Ohio.
In 2019, Chenault was appointed to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Board of Governors.
Literature
Kenneth is the author of the upcoming book "Life is Not a Straight Line: The Upside of Every Downturn in Business and Life," which is about the life, times, values, and principles of a black man in the business world.
Accolades & Honors
In 1995, "Ebony" magazine listed Chenault as one of fifty "Living Pioneers" in the African American community.
Kenneth was inducted into the Junior Achievement United States Business Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2008, he presented the commencement speech at Howard University, a historically black research university in Washington, D.C. In 2010, he presented commencement speeches at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Later that year, Chenault was recognized by the Old North Foundation with a Lantern Award for commitment to and dedication to public service in the preservation of historically significant monuments and landmarks.
In 2021, Kenneth appeared on "Time" magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Chenault has been named an honoree of the University of California, Los Angeles's Anderson School of Management.
Philanthropy
Kenneth and his wife are founding donors to the Art for Justice Fund, an organization that aims to reduce the size of prison populations and provide employment opportunities for prisoners who are released.
In 2020, Chenault and his wife donated $1 million to Morehouse College to allow the continuation of funding for the Dr. Hortenius Chenault Endowed Chair in Math and Science and to support the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel Restoration Project.
In 2022, Kenneth and his wife donated $2 million to Howard University in memory of their late friend Vernon Jordan to support an endowed chair at the Howard School of Law. That same year, they gifted $100,000 to New Jersey City University to establish an endowed scholarship fund that would support the educational needs of first-generation students, demonstrating financial need and active participation and leadership in community service.
In 2023, Chenault and his wife made a gift of $2 million to Bowdoin College, the bulk of which was to establish the Herman S. Dreer Leadership Fellowship, which would allow exemplary leaders to come and engage with the community there.
The Kenneth and Kathryn Chenault Scholarship, offered by the New York School of Law, supports the AnBryce Scholarship – a program that offers full tuition and financial support to first-generation incoming students who have proven themselves to be leaders in the face of challenging social and economic circumstances.
Kenneth and his wife are annual donors of $1 million and over to the Lincoln Center.
Personal Life
Kenneth married Kathryn Cassell, an attorney for the United Negro College Fund, in 1977. They have several properties around the country but primarily reside in New Rochelle, New York. They have two sons, Ken and Kevin.
