Thomas–Graham, Pamela

(1963-)
NBC, Inc.

Overview

A graduate of Harvard with three degrees, Pamela Thomas–Graham has often been described as a super–achiever. In July 2001 she was named president and CEO of CNBC, the Internet branch of the financial news channel. She is also executive vice president of NBC. Prior to that she worked for 10 years at McKinsey and Company, a prestigious management consulting firm in New York City. When she was 32–years–old she became the first African–American woman to become a partner in that organization. On top of all of her executive duties Thomas–Graham found the time to become a popular author. Her three mystery novels have been published by Simon and Schuster. In addition, she serves on the board of charities such as the Red Cross and the Metropolitan Opera. When she assumed her position with CNBC, she became the highest–ranking woman executive heading a division at NBC.

Personal Life

Pamela Thomas–Graham was born in 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother was a social worker from Georgia and her father an engineer from South Carolina. She has one brother.

Thomas–Graham's parents were deeply inspired by the civil rights movement of the 1960s and they in turn influenced Thomas–Graham's own values. While growing up in Detroit in the 1970s, Thomas–Graham looked up to civil rights leaders like Julian Bond and Thurgood Marshall. Her parents were also firm believers in the benefits of a good education. As such, they encouraged their daughter to reach as high as she could go and Thomas–Graham did not disappoint. Her peers at Detroit's Lutheran High School West named her as the "smartest" and "most likely to succeed." During high school, Thomas–Graham, who liked to sing and dance, was active in the drama club and school choir. She also became the first graduate of Lutheran High to go to Harvard University.

Thomas–Graham initially went to Harvard to become a lawyer. But when she entered college she became interested in economics and business, which would eventually result in her simultaneously attaining a business degree and law degree. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard–Radcliffe College with a B.A. in 1985. While at Radcliffe she received the Captain Jonathan Fay prize, which is the highest annual honor bestowed by Radcliffe. Thomas–Graham won the award for being the student "showing the greatest promise" in her graduating class. She continued on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989 and a law degree from Harvard Law School that same year. During her college years, she interned during summers, working in politics, for a professor, and at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. While in law school, she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Her education, intelligence, and ambition landed her high–ranking positions with McKinsey and Company, a prestigious management consulting company in New York City, and with NBC. In 1998, she began writing mystery novels that have proved popular with the reading public.

Thomas–Graham met her husband, Lawrence Otis Graham, a writer and attorney, in the mid–1980s when they were both attending Harvard. They dated for six years and were married in 1992. Thomas–Graham has also worked as a strategist for her husband's congressional campaign. The couple lives in Chappaqua, New York with their son. They enjoy exercise and weekend tennis.

Thomas–Graham serves on the boards of the New York City Opera, the American Red Cross of Greater New York, the Inner–City Scholarship Fund and the Harvard Alumni Association.

Career Details

Thomas–Graham's professional career began in earnest in 1989 when she started her 10–year stint with McKinsey and Company, who first hired her as an associate. She worked 16–hour days but her efforts paid off. Over the course of the next several years she worked her way up through the firm and became one of the heads of its media and entertainment practice, advising Fortune 500 companies. She would later say that one of her biggest challenges was convincing herself and others that she could effectively advise a corporate CEO about complex business problems.

In 1995, when she was only 32–years–old, she became the first African–American woman partner in the company. In fact, she was one of only three black partners in a firm of approximately three thousand consultants working in thirty–five countries. Thomas–Graham later related how there were no African–American female role models, so she had to set herself up as her own role model.

Thomas–Graham found consulting work to provide great groundwork in advancing her career. In a piece she wrote for The Black Collegian Online titled "Reflections on Success," she said, "Going into consulting can be a great choice for people starting out who aren't exactly sure what they want to do. You're helping people solve business problems, and you are at the same time exposing yourself to all kinds of different possibilities."

In 1999 Thomas–Graham felt she was ready to leave McKinsey and move on to the next challenge, so she sent out feelers. One of her mentors at McKinsey and Company then arranged for her to meet Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric. At McKinsey, as part of the retail and media practice group, Thomas–Graham helped clients build business on the Internet. Therefore, she seemed appropriately suited for General Electric, which owns NBC and CNBC.com. At the time, the CNBC website was serving strictly as a promotional tool for the CNBC cable channel, and Welch wanted to turn it into a full–service financial site. As it turned out, Welch and Thomas–Graham hit it off when they met and a few months later, Welch was offering her a job. Thomas–Graham immediately accepted. She was excited by the opportunity to become involved in the online industry.

At first, Thomas–Graham was in charge of CNBC's online operations. In February 2001 she became president and COO of CNBC. When she took the position, CNBC had risen to be an international leader in business news and operations. Her job for the cable network, as she saw it, was to set the strategic vision of the site and then to make sure it had the adequate resources to allow it to grow, building the value of the franchise. She oversaw a staff of 150. Her duties included managing all aspects of editorial, production, marketing, communications, and technology. On top of all of that, she still managed the website.

Chronology: Pamela Thomas–Graham

1963: Born.

1985: Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard–Radcliffe.

1989: Graduated from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.

1989: Hired by McKinsey and Company.

1992: Married writer/lawyer Larry Otis Graham.

1995: Became first African–American woman partner at McKinsey and Company.

1998: First novel published by Simon and Schuster.

1999: Named as COO of CNBC.com.

2001: Became president and CEO of the CNBC cable network.

2001: Named vice president of NBC.

When Thomas–Graham was offered the position, some observers were skeptical about NBC's choice. Thomas–Graham had no previous experience in the broadcast industry. However, NBC was confident in its decision. Bob Wright, president and CEO of NBC, said, "I have chosen Pamela for this new COO role because of her management skills and leadership capability, and I am confident that adding her to our CNBC executive team will help CNBC build on its success in the years ahead."

By this time, Thomas–Graham was also confident in her own abilities. In September 2001 she told Black Enterprise that she had made it at McKinsey and knew that she could, and would, make it at NBC. But she understood that it would be a challenge. "I knew I had to prove myself coming in," she said.

In July 2001 she became the president and chief executive officer of the CNBC cable network. She was only 38–years–old, a relatively young age to assume such a position with a major, high profile corporation. At the time CNBC was providing business news programming and financial market coverage to more than 198 million homes worldwide, including more than 82 million in the United States and Canada. As the CEO of CNBC, she reports to the president and chief operating officer of NBC, and she is responsible for all CNBC domestic operations, including programming, advertising sales, and coordinating activities across CNBC's television and Internet platforms.

Soon she acquired another title: executive vice president of NBC. In that position, she participates in weekly meetings that involve the high–level strategic direction for the entire corporation. With the job came executive perks. Each morning, she is driven to work at CNBC.com's headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey. She also has an office at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.

As she moves into the future with CNBC, Thomas–Graham develops initiatives that will increase revenue and viewers. Near the end of 2001, plans included new programming like "CNBC World," a digital services that offered investors real–time access to comprehensive financial information on a global scale.

As if Thomas–Graham hasn't achieved enough, she has also carved out for herself a career as a successful mystery writer. Her debut novel, A Darker Shade of Crimson: An Ivy League Mystery, was published in 1998 by Simon and Schuster, one of the top book publishing houses in the world. It was part of a planned series and featured a main character named Nikki Chase, a young African–American professor of economics at Harvard. In a review of the book, Publisher's Weekly remarked the Thomas–Graham "delivers on the promise of her first story" and "skillfully incorporates attitudes toward race and integration." A writer for Kirkus Reviews said the book was "an impressive first outing" and "[v]ivid characters, easy dialogue, and fluidly entertaining narrative mark a robustly talented new recruit to the genre."

Her debut novel was followed by a second in the "Ivy League" series, Blue Blood. A third one is not yet published.

It seems remarkable that Thomas–Graham could even find the time to be a novel writer, a profession that requires a great amount of time, dedication, and discipline. After all, she has a high–ranking profession in a demanding industry and she is raising a young son. However, Thomas–Graham revealed that, when she is in the process of producing a novel, she gets up at 4:30 a.m. and sits at her computer for several hours, writing until it is time to see to her family and get ready to go to work.

In addition to her literary and broadcasting pursuits, Thomas–Graham serves on the boards of directors of the New York City Opera, the American Red Cross of Greater New York, and Girls Incorporated. She has been profiled in a number of leading publications, including Fortune, Jet, and Time.

Social and Economic Impact

Pamela Thomas–Graham's life and career have included a number of distinctions. Besides being named as the first African–American woman partner at McKinsey and Company in 1995, she is also the highest–ranking woman executive running a division at NBC, Inc.

She has received many business awards including the 2001 Matrix award from New York Women in Communications for her contributions in the field of new media and the "Woman of the Year" award from the Financial Women's Association. She has been included in Crain's New York Business "Forty Under Forty" list of rising young business leaders. She was also chosen as one of the "Top 20 Women in Finance" by Global Finance Magazine, and one of the "Top 10 Consultants in America" by Consulting Magazine.

In the late part of the 1990s, after Thomas-Graham came on board, CNBC's revenues and popularity rose considerably. Sales went from $196 million in 1996 to $507 million in 2000. One–year sales went from $380 million in 1999 to $507 million in 2000. A good part of the success has been attributed to Thomas–Graham's lead and direction with CNBC.com. When Thomas–Graham joined CNBC in 1999, CNBC trailed behind competitors like CBSMarketwatch.com and CNNfn.com. However, by 2001 she had turned CNBC.com into an award–winning site with 1.5 million visitors per month.

Sources of Information

Contact at: NBC, Inc.
30 Rockefeller Plz.
New York, NY 10112

Bibliography

Clarke, Robyn D. "Excellence by the Graham," Black Enterprise, September 2001.

"Pamela Thomas–Graham." NBC.com Corporate Info, 2001. Available at http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/Executive_Bios/thomas-graham_pamela.shtml.

"Pamela Thomas–Graham Named Chief Executive of CNBC." CNEWS Media News, 24 July 2001. Available at http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSMediaNews0107/24_cnbc-ap.html.

Roach, Collen. "Compelling Couple: Pamela Thomas–Graham and Larry Otis Graham." The Westchester Wag, June 2000. Available from http://www.westchesterwag.com/pastarticles/grahams.asp.

Thomas–Graham, Pamela. "Reflections on Success." The Black Collegian Online, 2001. Available at http://www.blackcollegian.com/issues/30thAnn/reflectpgraham2001-30th.shtml.