Longtime corporate executive Thasunda Brown Duckett has achieved a lot in her career. After serving as CEO of Chase Consumer Banking for more than four years, it was recently announced that Duckett will become the next CEO of the Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). When she takes on this role on May 1, she will be the second black woman to currently lead a Fortune 500 company and only the fourth black woman in history to hold the position of CEO of Fortune 500.
Duckett attributes much of his success to finding his professional passion in the beginning. As an undergraduate student at the University of Houston, he got an internship at mortgage loan company Fannie Mae. “I loved it,” he told The New York Times in 2019, “and I began to realize I was going to work in the mortgage business.”
After graduating from college, Duckett says he received several job offers, but decided to go with Fannie Mae, even though she was the lowest.
“I said,‘ I know this company and I like people, and I’ll have a better shot here, ’” he told the Times. In addition to knowing the company culture, Duckett explained that he also knew that Fannie Mae would provide him with opportunities that fit his professional goals. “Find your passion and, for me, it was home ownership.”
Thasunda Duckett, CEO of Consumer Banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The executive says her humble upbringing is what inspired her to pursue a career in the financial field.
“When you know what it’s like to look in the fridge and just see baking soda, or know what it’s like to turn off the lights, personal finances are important,” Duckett says. In her role as Fannie Mae, she helped lead affordable housing initiatives for people of color.
After leaving Fannie Mae in 2004, Duckett, who holds an MBA from Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, joined Chase. Prior to joining her current role in 2016, she worked as CEO of Chase Auto Finance, SVP for Emerging Markets and Affordable Lending and SVP for Home Loans.
As she reflects on her professional journey, the 47-year-old says she thinks a lot about her parents and how her relationship with money took her to where she is today.
“I often think about the day my dad asked me to help him plan his retirement and I had to tell him,‘ Dad, your pension isn’t enough, ’” he said in a statement announcing his new role. Duckett’s father worked at a Xerox warehouse in New Jersey before losing his job and moving his family to Texas, she says, and his mother worked as a schoolteacher. buy a house until Duckett was able to help them with the purchase.
Now, as TIAA’s new CEO, the executive says, “I am extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity to run a company that has helped millions of people retire with“ enough ”to live with dignity and enthusiasm for the opportunity to help TIAA chart its next 100 years. “
Do not miss it: The Best Credit Cards for Buildings of 2021
Take a look at:
Thasunda Brown Duckett on the new role of CEO at TIAA: “I am very grateful for the shoulders I am”
Walgreens’ new CEO Roz Brewer is biased in suite C: “When you’re a black woman, you’re wrong.”
Ambition is not the problem: women want the best jobs, they just don’t get them