Words by Rosalind Thacker
JP Morgan executive Thasunda Duckett has been appointed to the firm’s Operating Committee, making her the first Black woman to do so and one of the most powerful women in banking.
JP Morgan recently announced that Chief Executive Officer of Chase Consumer Banking, Thasunda Duckett, will be the first Black woman named to the firm’s Operating Committee in the biggest expansion of its top leadership group in years.
“This is a reminder that I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams”, Duckett said when speaking 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.”
As a child, Duckett experienced economic uncertainty first-hand. Her father lost his job, and they often struggled to afford groceries. Now, as chief executive of Chase consumer banking and a member of the Operating Committee, 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.
As a member of the Operating Committee, Duckett will have increased responsibility for the company’s overall management, broader exposure to firmwide issues, and a greater opportunity to work together with other members of the leadership team. Duckett explained her new role as being “at the table, and having a voice not just for the business, but across the entire firm”.
Duckett’s boss, Jamie Dimon, has consistently made the bank’s commitment to increasing diversity clear. This year, after the attention on the lack of diversity in high-profile corporations, news of Duckett’s appointment will be welcome across the sector. Make no mistake, her appointment to the bank’s Operating Committee was on merit, as her track record shows. It also comes after Jane Fraser was named CEO of Citi Bank in a historic first for Wall Street.
Duckett has been recognized widely as a leading executive in the finance industry. It’s rare to see a bank executive who is big on social media, but Duckett has nearly 22,000 followers on Instagram. She was also named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful “Women to Watch” in 2019.
Duckett hopes her meteoric rise through corporate America will serve as an inspiration to young people that they can achieve anything: “I hope that young people of all backgrounds, little Black and brown girls and boys, will be able to see someone who looks like me, someone who has this unbelievable passion for saying ‘I too, can ascend. I, too, can be a CEO. I, too, can be on the Operating Committee. I, too, can someday do whatever it is that I aspire.”
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