Longtime CEO 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 Teachers 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 run a Fortune 500 firm and only the fourth black woman in history to serve as Fortune 500 CEO.
Duckett attributes much of her success to finding her career passion early. As an undergraduate student at the University of Houston, she got an internship at the mortgage lending company Fannie Mae. “I loved it,” she told The New York Times in 2019, “and I began to realize that I was going to work in the mortgage business.”
After graduating from university, Duckett says she received several job offers but decided to go with Fannie Mae, even if it was the lowest.
“I said, ‘I know this company and I like the people, and I’ll get a better chance here,'” she told the Times. “Besides being familiar with the company’s culture, Duckett explained that she also knows that Fannie Mae would offer her opportunities that match her career goals. “You find your passion, and that was for my home ownership.”
Thasunda Duckett, Consumer Banking CEO at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The executive says her humble upbringing has inspired her to pursue a career in finance.
“If you know what it’s like to look in the fridge and only see baking soda, or know what it’s like to turn off your lights, personal finances are important,” Duckett says. In her role with Fannie Mae, she has helped lead affordable housing initiatives for colored people.
After leaving Fannie Mae in 2004, Duckett, who holds an MBA from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, joined Chase. Prior to entering her current role in 2016, she worked as the CEO of Chase Auto Finance, SVP for emerging markets and affordable loans, and SVP for home loans.
As she thinks back on her career journey, the 47-year-old says she thinks a lot about her parents and how their relationship with money has led her to where she is today.
“I often think of the day when my father asked me to help him plan his retirement, and I had to say to him, ‘Dad, your pension is not enough,'” she said in a statement. she announced her new role at TIAA Duckett’s father worked at a Xerox warehouse in New Jersey before losing his job and moving the family to Texas, she says. Her mother worked as a schoolteacher. buy a house before Duckett could help them with the purchase.
Now, as the new CEO of TIAA, the CEO says: “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to lead a company that has helped millions of people retire with ‘enough’ to live with dignity and excitement about the opportunity to help TIAA chart the next 100 years. “
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Thasunda Brown Duckett on TIAA new CEO: ‘I have so much gratitude for the shoulders I stand on’
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