When the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation's chief executive officer retired, the corporation called on former Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander for temporary leadership.  Alexander has been a member of the Board of Directors of the D&B Corporation since 1993.  But when Volney Taylor, the chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet, retired in 1999, Alexander was chosen by the corporation to temporarily oversee the operations of the 1.97 billion dollar company as well as oversee the search for a permanent chairman and CEO.

“I consider it an honor to be asked to help,” says Alexander, who is expected to hold the reigns of the D&B Corporation until sometime this fall.  “Dun and Bradstreet is a preeminent provider of global business and financial services, with unsurpassed worldwide information capabilities, and two of the most powerful brand names in our markets.”

Under Alexander’s tenure as interim chairman and CEO, the company is spinning off its two operations, the Dun and Bradstreet Operating Company (D&B) and Moody’s Investors Service into two separate companies. D&B is a global source for business information that helps companies power electronic commerce and Moody’s is a leading global provider of credit ratings. “It’s been invigorating [being] engaged in this,” says Alexander,  “We have turned around an investment community that was critical of our company.” Alexander also helped the board select Allan Z. Loren as the new chief and CEO of the D&B Operating Company.  Alexander will continue to be the chairman and chief executive officer of the parent Dun and Bradstreet Corporation until the two companies are officially separated.

When Alexander turns over the reigns to Loren, he will still be a force in the business community.  In addition to serving on the Boards of Directors of American Home Products Corporation, MCI Worldcom, IMS Health, Mutual of America and on the Boards of several Dreyfus investment funds, Alexander serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, and is the president of the consulting firm Alexander and Associates, Inc.  This Washington-based firm, founded by Alexander in 1981, specializes in helping corporations strengthen their workforces by helping design and implement programs to recruit and promote minorities and women.

Alexander’s own path to business and leadership success began at home.  “Both of my parents, but particularly my late mother thought of education as an extraordinary part of life,” says Alexander. “They always saw to it that little Clifford got his education.”  Born in New York City in 1933, Alexander attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School; then went on to attend Harvard University where he thrived academically and socially.  He became president of the Harvard Student Council and was First Marshal of his class when he graduated cum laude in 1955.

The recent graduate thought his Harvard degree would lead to multiple job offers. But, “in the time I was coming out of school, opportunities in the private sector for professional corporate jobs were not there for Black people.” Alexander decided to go on to law school, because having a professional degree meant “you could stand alone.”  With the encouragement of his parents, Alexander obtained a law degree from the Yale University Law School in 1958.  After graduation, he began a series of jobs that put him in the forefront of the fight for equal opportunity for African Americans. From 1959 to 1967 Alexander served in succession as: assistant district attorney for New York County, executive director of two New York non-profit organizations, foreign affairs officer of the National Security Council (under President Kennedy), and as deputy special assistant, associate special counsel and deputy special counsel to President Lyndon Johnson.

In 1967, Alexander was appointed by President Johnson as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The EEOC, established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, promotes equal opportunity in employment through administrative and judicial enforcement of the federal civil rights laws and through education and technical assistance. In addition to heading the EEOC, Alexander served as President Johnson’s special consultant on Civil Rights until 1969.

In the early 1970s, he left public service and returned to practicing law.  But Alexander still remained involved in the public sphere, hosting and co-producing his television show Clifford Alexander—Black on White, which aired from 1971-1974.  In 1974, Alexander ran for District of Columbia mayor in the first mayoral election held in the city in 104 years. Though Alexander did not win the election, he was soon to return to government service.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Alexander as Secretary of the Army.  “I imagine that I was selected to do that because I had managed a government organization, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” During the four years Alexander served as the Secretary of the Army, his duties involved managing all army affairs including training, operations, administration, logistical support, military preparedness and developing and managing the Army’s annual budget.   During the same time period, Alexander also served as chairman of the board of the Panama Canal.

Upon leaving the army in 1981, Alexander founded his consulting firm, Alexander & Associates, Inc.  The company consults with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies and other businesses on the effective recruitment and promotion of minorities and women.  Alexander thinks that minorities face different but equally daunting challenges from those faced by minorities in the 1960s and 70s. “There has obviously been significant progress made,” says Alexander. But “the difference is that discrimination, unfortunately, is alive and well and its subtleties exist today.”

“Then it was very obvious what the discrimination was.  You weren’t allowed to vote, or you couldn’t eat on the counter, or you were not accepted for a job.”   Now, according to Alexander, strategies need to change to combat new, subtle forms of discrimination such as unequitable lending practices.

“Those of us who are interested in greater opportunities for women and minorities, particularly in the world of work, “ says Alexander, “have to achieve more allies in our struggle. And {regarding} allies, who are capable of making the changes, I find there are very few CEOs who are prodded to be advocates for fair opportunity when they should see it as a business opportunity.”

Alexander mentions, “this is about good business. You cannot take a society that is made up of maybe as much as 60 to 75% of women and minorities and not utilize those people as productively as you can.” Through his consulting firm, Alexander tries to convince companies to hire people that do not “look, walk, and talk like them.” Says Alexander, “What we try to do as a company is to see to it that corporations examine the rich source of supply” of women and minorities who have the skills that corporations need.

Alexander thinks that minority owned companies should be advised to take advantage of the new global marketplace. “I do think that Blacks should think expansively.  We must think in terms of selling to whites, to the world, not just to Southeast Washington or Harlem.” According to Alexander, Blacks are still fighting the effects of segregation that effectively limited the markets where Blacks were able to sell their goods and services.

“The progress that has been made means that some of that segregation has been broken down so that the markets are broader than they have been,” says Alexander.  “When the people at General Motors make a car, they don’t make it exclusively for white people, and certainly any Black entrepreneur should think of his or her services for as extensive a market as is possible.”

Alexander advises college students that the key to having a long, successful career in any field is a willingness to take chances, preparedness and being able to adjust to change.  “Take advantage of those years,” comments Alexander, and don’t constrain your coursework to your major.  “If you are interested in the insurance industry, don’t take just insurance courses. It’s one of the few times in life that you can broaden yourself. Take courses in music. Take courses in art,” advises Alexander. “Because usually the most successful people in the world of work generally have broad interests and can apply those interests to the specific area that they end up in.”

Alexander is married to the former Adele Logan, a writer and associate history professor at George Washington University.   Her novel, Homelands and Waterways, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and won the 2000 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award.  The Alexander's daughter, Elizabeth, is currently a Grace Hazard Conkling Poet in Residence and is the director of the Poetry Center at Smith College.  Their son Mark is a law professor at Seton Hall University.

Katina Stapleton is a political science instructor at Syracuse University and a doctoral candidate at Duke University.