Thasunda Brown Duckett

The Fortune 500 CEO Working to Close Racial and Gender Retirement Gaps

As President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, Thasunda Brown Duckett is currently one of two Black women Fortune 500 CEOs. Coming from a family that was, as she’s said “long on love” but short on financial resources, inspires her every day to uphold the company’s ethos of financial inclusion and opportunity. To improve retirement outcomes for those often marginalized by financial institutions, she’s launched numerous programs to close both the racial and gender retirement gaps. Under her leadership, TIAA has expanded its mission beyond higher education to provide retirement services for all Americans, and the company saw record-high operating margins in 2023. In addition to serving on several corporate and charitable boards, she is an appointee to the President Biden’s Board of Advisors of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), The Business Council Executive Committee, and the Committee for Economic Development. In honor of her parents, she founded the Otis and Rosie Brown Foundation to recognize and reward people who use ordinary means to do extraordinary things for their communities.

By Katy Brennan