Ken Frazier on Why CEOs Must Have Principles

Ken Frazier is currently Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, at General Catalyst, which is just the most recent leadership position on an impressive resume. Frazier served as CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck for 10 years, stepping down in 2021. He is also co-founder and former CEO of the OneTen initiative - aimed at connecting underrepresented talent with corporate jobs - and, until last year, was the Lead Independent Director of the ExxonMobil Board of Directors. Frazier has also become known for standing by his principles. He first made a name for himself as a young lawyer in the early 1990s, when he represented a wrongfully-convicted death row inmate and worked to get his conviction overturned. In 2017, he resigned from former President Trump's Manufacturing Advisory Council after the president's ambivalent comments following the Charlottesville rally. The move prompted a number of CEOs to follow in his footsteps. And in 2021, spurred by a new law in Georgia, Frazier urged corporate America to vocally fight for voting rights for all Americans. In this episode of Leadership Next, recorded live in Washington D.C. at a Deloitte Next Generation CEO event, Frazier tells host Alan Murray why these decisions were a matter of principle not politics and why he thinks CEOs can and should stand for every American's right to vote regardless of their political views. He also discusses the challenges he faced in his first few years as CEO of Merck and the shareholders who trusted his vision enough to support him. Finally, Frazier talks about starting the OneTen coalition after the murder of George Floyd and the need to find a common language to talk about ESG and DEI. Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Om Podcasten

Something big is happening in the world of business. CEOs increasingly say their jobs have become less about giving orders, more about inspiring, motivating, setting a north star. They are taking the lead on big issues like climate change, worker retraining, and diversity and inclusion. They are under pressure from employees, customers and investors not just to turn a profit, but to prove they are doing good in the world. And in the process, they are fundamentally redefining the relationship between business and society. Join Fortune CEO Alan Murray and Editor-at-Large Michal Lev-Ram as they probe the best of these leaders for insight into what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what impact it is having.