TIAA becomes first Fortune 500 company to appoint two consecutive Black CEOs

TIAA on Thursday became the first Fortune 500 company to appoint two consecutive Black CEOs.

The retirement and investment firm announced that it appointed Thasunda Brown Duckett as its new president and CEO effective May 1.

Duckett’s appointment makes her the second Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. Walgreens announced late last month that former Starbucks executive Roz Brewer will become its new CEO beginning March 15. 

Duckett is joining the TIAA from JPMorgan Chase, where she was the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking. In that role, she led a banking network of $600 billion in deposits and 4,900 branches.

Duckett will be replacing Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., who previously announced that he will be retiring from the company on March 31. However, he will remain CEO until Duckett assumes the role.

The Executive Leadership Council told The Washington Post that TIAA’s succession is “the only Black CEO to Black CEO transition of this magnitude of which we are aware.” The council told the newspaper that Bernard J. Tyson, the CEO of Kaiser Permanente’s CEO who passed away last year, was replaced by another Black CEO. However, Kaiser is not a Fortune 500 corporation.

Ferguson currently one of four Black CEOs in the Fortune 500, according to Fortune. An analysis from the publication found that there have only been 19 Black CEOs out of the 1,800 CEOs since the list was first published in 1955.