Wendell J. Knox

Corporate executive Wendell J. Knox was born on February 13, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana to Esther Ruby Williams Knox and McBurnett Knox Sr. He attended Bush Elementary School and graduated from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans. He received his B.A. degree in social relations in 1969 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Knox was hired in 1969 as a research associate by Abt Associates, a policy research and business consulting firm, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also, in 1969, he was promoted to deputy manager for Abt Associates’ evaluation of community development corporations for the Office of Economic Opportunity. From 1973 to 1983, Knox directed the firm’s urban economics practice and directed the launch of the company’s major diversification into international economic development. He was promoted to vice president of Abt Associates in 1976. In 1983, Knox led the creation of the company’s business research and consulting practice, which would later spawn the subsidiary Abt Biopharma Solutions. Knox was promoted to president and CEO of Abt Associates in 1992. He was the first African American president of Abt Associates. He diversified the firm’s portfolio and secured several international healthcare system modernization and social housing contracts, expanding the company’s revenues five-fold to over $300 million. Knox retired from Abt Associates in 2009.

Knox served on the board of directors for several corporations, including Eastern Bank from 1995 to 2008, Commonwealth Capital Ventures since 1995, and Natixis and Loomis Sayles Funds since 2009, as well as The Hanover Insurance Group and Maine Pointe, LLC. He also served on the boards of Brigham and Women's Hospital, The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, The Partnership, The Biomedical Sciences Career Program, The Efficacy Institute, the Dimock Community Foundation, and the National Association of Corporate Directors New England Chapter.

Knox was the recipient of Conexion’s Mentorship Award in 2016 and was named the 2008 Private Corporation Director of the Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Knox lives with his wife, Lucy Algeré Knox, in Lincoln, Massachusetts. They have three adult children, Matthew, Clinton, and Wendell Knox, Jr. and seven grandchildren.

Wendell J. Knox was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on October 19, 2022.