Consumer banking Chief Executive Thasunda Brown Duckett made history this week after she was named as a member of the operating committee at JPMorgan.
She is the first Black woman ever to hold the position.
“This is a reminder that I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams,” Duckett said in a statement to ESSENCE. “I like to say that I’m on the shoulders of giants. And it was the cooks and the janitors and the secretaries who introduced my melanin to corporate America that now, fast-forward, I actually have the opportunity to be on the operating committee.”
Duckett is the Chief Executive Officer of Chase Consumer Banking. She oversees a banking network with more than $600 billion in deposits, 5,000+ branches, 16,000+ ATMs and 50,000 employees serving 25 million households nationwide.
“Over this period, our firm has also weathered some unprecedented challenges, including the current pandemic,” CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, said in a statement. “I am proud of all our employees, our Operating Committee, and senior management teams. I am extremely grateful for the exceptional leadership they have shown over the decades, often under the most difficult of circumstances.”
Duckett is also the executive sponsor of JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways program, aimed at helping Black Americans close historical achievement gaps in wealth creation, educational outcomes and career success. She is also a member of the steering committee for JPMorgan Chase’s Women on the Move initiative to advance women in their careers and in business, and the executive sponsor of the firm’s The Fellowship Initiative, which offers young men of color academic and social support to help them achieve personal and professional success.
She has been dubbed one of “the most powerful women in banking.”
