Who was the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
Answer
Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham was the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She became chief executive of the Washington Post Company in 1972, breaking a major barrier in American corporate leadership.
Graham entered the Washington Post’s leadership after her husband, Philip Graham, died by suicide in 1963. Although she initially lacked business experience and faced skepticism from the company’s male executives, she gradually took control. She formally became publisher in 1969 and later chairwoman of the board.
Her leadership is closely associated with the Washington Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers and its reporting on the Watergate scandal. The newspaper’s work helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Graham’s memoir, Personal History, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1998.
A common mix-up is confusing Graham with later pioneering executives such as Mary Barra, who became General Motors’ first female CEO in 2014. Graham’s distinction refers specifically to the first woman to lead a company listed in the Fortune 500.