Pamela Thomas-Graham

CEO & President, CNBC

Executive Vice President, NBC

Age: 41

Thomas-Graham, the highest ranking African American in the ultra-competitive cable news industry, continues to prove she's worth her weight in gold. In July 2001, she was appointed president and CEO of CNBC, the 24-hour news channel owned by NBC and affiliated with Dow Jones, which generated more than $500 million in revenues. Over the past two years, Thomas-Graham has shifted the network's focus away from the stock market and toward analysis of current events and talk shows with high-profile hosts. As a result, it has begun to turn a profit on par with its performance before the dot-com bust and 9-11. A triple Harvard University degree holder (B.A., M.B.A., J.D.), Thomas-Graham, has been breaking new ground throughout her career. She became the first black woman and the youngest ever to make partner at the world-class management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Pamela Thomas-Graham (born Pamela A. Thomas on June 24 in Detroit, Michigan) is an African American businesswoman[1] and corporate leader who is well regarded in the fields of finance, media, retail and consulting. She is a phi beta kappa graduate of Harvard University (B.A. Economics - magna cum laude), as well as a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, where she served on the Harvard Law Review. Thomas-Graham is a senior executive at Credit Suisse, where she serves on the 150-year-old bank's 11-member Executive Board. The first African American woman to become partner at McKinsey & Company, the international management consulting firm, Thomas-Graham served clients in the retail, media and financial services industries. She also served as President and CEO of CNBC where she led the $500 million network to become one of the most profitable cable TV properties in the nation. During her tenure, she hired such on-air talent as Jim Cramer, and she led the network to win its first Peabody Award with the Age of Wal-Mart documentary, the first of CNBC's longform documentaries. Thomas-Graham also served as Group President of Liz Claiborne where she headed a $1.5 billion business unit which included the flagship Liz Claiborne label and 17 other brands. Prior to her joining the company, the Liz Claiborne brand label had suffered 25 quarters of decline, but during her tenure, the label was re-energized and reached top-line sales growth. Thomas-Graham began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she was a summer associate in the investment banking division while she was student at Harvard Business School. She has served as Managing Director in the private equity group of a major New York-based asset management firm. She has served on several boards including the Clorox Company, the New York City Opera, Parsons School of Design, and the Inner City Scholarship Fund. She is the author of three books, Blue Blood, Orange Crushed, and A Darker Shade Of Crimson, published by Simon & Schuster. The books have been translated into German and Japanese. She also serves as a member of the Economic Club of New York, Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Secretary of State's Committee on Transformational Diplomacy. Thomas-Graham has been honored by the National Urban League, the Financial Women's Association, the NAACP and Ms. Magazine. She serves on the Visiting Committee at Harvard Business School and is a well-regarded expert on corporate management issues.

2010 she joined the Executive Board of Credit Suisse as Head Talent Development and Communication.