Coverage: AmEx CEO Chenault retiring

American Express Co. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault is stepping down after 16 years running the credit-card lender.

Jennifer Surane and Jordyn Holman of Bloomberg News had the story:

Chenault, 66, will stay on until Feb. 1, the New York-based firm said Wednesday in a statement. Squeri, 58, is vice chairman and has been at AmEx for three decades.

“We’re completing a two-year turnaround ahead of plan and getting ready to start a new chapter,” Chenault said on a call with analysts after the company reported third-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates and boosted its full-year earnings forecast. “Given the progress we’re making, I thought this was the right time to begin the leadership transition.”

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Chenault has been with the firm since 1981 and is one of the longest-serving black CEOs in the U.S. After stints as president of the New York-based lender’s travel unit and later chief operating officer, he was named chairman and CEO in 2001. He also serves on the boards of International Business Machines Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co.

Lucinda Shen of Fortune reports that Chenault’s retirement leaves just three black CEOs in the Fortune 500:

Yet while American Express’ valuation did not fall as a result of Chenault’s departure, it was a loss in terms of diversity among the already largely homogenous Fortune 500 companies. Squeri is of Irish-Italian descent.

Chenault is the first black CEO to helm American Express'(number 86 on the Fortune 500). He is also one of four black CEOs on the list. That’s already down from January, when Xerox CEO Ursula Burns stepped down from her post, leaving no black women among the country’s largest companies by revenue.

With Chenault’s departure, the Fortune 500 will boast just three black CEOs: TIAA’s Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Merck’s Kenneth C. Frazier, and J.C. Penney’s Marvin R. Ellison.

Leaders of the Fortune 500 are already overwhelming the same when it comes to the diversity figures: roughly 72% of CEOs on the Fortune 500 are white and male.

Stacy Cowley of The New York Times reported that the company struggled in recent years:

Others have horned in on American Express’s traditional territory, offering increasingly lavish rewards to attract high spenders. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card initially courted millennials with a large sign-up bonus of 100,000 points and a slew of benefits, attracting a wave of applications.

The company also lost two prominent deals, with Costco and JetBlue. Rivals had offered them better terms.

That competition hit the company’s finances. Revenues dropped in 2015 and 2016. Its shares sputtered.

Trying to regain the company’s footing, Mr. Chenault increased its focus on areas like international and small business customers. Its Small Business Saturday campaign became a mainstay of the “buy local” movement.