Carl Brooks, President
Executive Leadership Council & Foundation

Carl Brooks retired from GPU Energy, Inc. as Vice President of Human and Technical Resources to become president of the Executive Leadership Council and Foundation in June 2001 following a national search. A longtime member of ELC, Mr. Brooks previously was Chair of the Executive Leadership Foundation. The Foundation was created in 1989 to raise support for programs developed by Council members. Under Mr. Brooks' leadership, a series of groundbreaking programs to build the next generation of African-American corporate executives were established and implemented.

Among the many challenges confronting the organization's mission is the relative absence of diverse leadership in the senior ranks of corporate America. Currently only two African Americans are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies - ELC member Kenneth Chenault, CEO, American Express, and Franklin Raines, CEO, Fannie Mae, an ELC member company. ELC member Stanley O'Neal , President and Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch has been named successor to the current CEO of that company and ELC supporter, Richard Parsons, has been named the next CEO of AOL Time-Warner.

"We still rarely rise to the top positions," said Mr. Brooks. "True diversity everyday, at every level, is still too often the plan rather than the reality." Yet many companies are trying to diversify their executive ranks, Mr. Brooks says. They possess the goodwill if not the process for making diversity a meaningful part of their leadership objectives. Identifying and working with these companies to foster mutual diversity objectives will be a key component of Mr. Brooks' leadership. Two new programs supporting leadership development objectives are the CEO's Diversity Leadership Summit sponsored by GE and the Corporate Board Development Initiative sponsored by the Philip Morris Companies. Other new programs underway are the Business Case Essay Competition and the Global Internship Program,

Continuing Foundation programs are the Mid-Level Managers' Symposium, the Regional Mid-Level Managers' Symposiums, the National Business Commentary Essay Contest, the Shadow Mentoring Program, and the Technology Transfer Project

Founded in 1986, ELC is a nonprofit networking and professional development organization for African-American senior level corporate executives working in Fortune 500 companies. The organization's mission is to diversify the corporate management landscape, train the next generation of African-American corporate leaders, and to influence public policy and urban development initiatives that advance economic justice and equity.