Ken Chenault is the chairman and CEO of American Express.

As a student at Bowdoin College in the 1970s, Ken Chenault argued strenuously that the best way to serve the African-American cause was to rise to power within the Establishment, as opposed to attacking it from the outside. He clearly meant what he said: He's now one of the most powerful African-American executives in the country. After graduating from Harvard Law, Chenault worked briefly as a lawyer and management consultant at Bain & Co., joining Amex in 1981 as director of strategic planning. Impressing then-CEO Lou Gerstner, Chenault eventually joined Amex's Travel Related Services, taking over as president of the unit in 1993. After successfully beefing up the company's credit card franchise by introducing co-branded cards and boosting the number of merchants that accept Amex, he was named American Express's president and COO in 1997. He became CEO in 2001 following the retirement of the company's longtime chief, Harvey Golub.

Perhaps Chenault's greatest accomplishment took place in 2004 when, following more than a decade of aggressive lobbying, Amex finally won approval from the Supreme Court to issue their cards in conjunction with banks like MBNA and Citigroup. (Visa and MasterCard had waged a legal battle to prevent banks from issuing competitors' cards.) However, challenges remain. The economic downturn hit Amex hard, since it relies on high-flying corporate spenders, and any weakness in the company only makes it more difficult to insist on substantially higher merchant fees. [Image via Getty, with wife Kathy]