Thasunda Brown Duckett, who has been a corporate executive for many years, has accomplished 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 steps into 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 serve as CEO of the Fortune 500.
Duckett attributes much of her success to finding her career passion early on. As a student at the University of Houston, she did an internship with the mortgage company Fannie Mae. “I loved it,” she told The New York Times in 2019, “and I started to realize that I was going to work in the mortgage business.”
After graduating, Duckett says she received multiple job openings, but decided to go for Fannie Mae, even though it was the lowest.
“I said, ‘I know this company and I love the people, and I’ll have a better chance here,'” she told the Times. Duckett was not only familiar with the corporate culture, but also explained that she also knew that Fannie Mae would offer her opportunities that match her career goals. “You find your passion, and for me that was home ownership.”
Thasunda Duckett, CEO of consumer banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The director says her humble upbringing inspired her to pursue a career in the financial field.
“If you know what it’s like to look in the fridge and see plain baking soda, or know what it’s like to have your lights off, then personal finances are important,” Duckett says. In her role with Fannie Mae, she helped lead affordable housing initiatives for people of color.
After leaving Fannie Mae in 2004, Duckett, who has an MBA from Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, joined Chase. Prior to taking her current position in 2016, she served as CEO of Chase Auto Finance, SVP for Emerging Markets and Affordable Lending and SVP for Home Loans.
As she looks back on her career, 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 about the day my dad asked me to help him plan his retirement, and I had to tell him, ‘Dad, your retirement is not enough,’ ” she said in a statement describing 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. Her parents could not buy a house until 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 excited about the opportunity to Help TIAA chart the next 100 years. ”
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