4. Thasunda Brown Duckett
On number 45 on Forbes list is Thasunda Brown Duckett. She became the second Black woman to head a Fortune 500 company following her appointment as the president and chief executive of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA).
She is also the first Black woman to be named on JP Morgan’s Operating Committee.
In 2018, Duckett was named one of the most powerful women in banking by American Banker magazine. In 2019, she was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful “Women to Watch.”
Duckett serves on a number of boards. They include the boards of Nike, Inc., Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Children’s Learning Center of Fairfield County, CT. In addition, she is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Hankamer School of Business.
Duckett is from Texas and began her career at Fannie Mae, leading affordable housing initiatives for people of colour. She holds a B.A. in finance and marketing from the University of Houston and an MBA from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.
She is married and has four children. Duckett grew up in a family that faced economic challenges. Her dad, Otis Brown, worked for Xerox in New Jersey as a truck driver. When the company was closed, her family relocated to Texas where her mom, Rosie, found a job as a teacher. In North Texas, they started over in an apartment using crates as makeshift furniture.
