Why Thasunda Brown Duckett Says ‘I Rent My Title. I Own My Character’

TIAA President and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett has spent years sounding the alarm on America’s retirement crisis. There’s a $4 trillion savings gap, 40% of Americans are at risk of running out of money, and women, who live longer, face an even steeper climb through a system that wasn’t built for them.

But when she took The Power Seat at our 2026 ChiefX New York City summit, her message wasn’t one of doom and gloom.

“I don't want to opt out of corporate America. There's so much change right now. I want to be part of what gets deposited to ensure a better future,” she said. “This country just hit our 250th anniversary. We, today, are the current generation that is making a deposit on what the next 250 will look like.”

Sitting down with Chief CEO Alison Moore, Brown Duckett took members inside her work expanding access to financial security as one of just three Black women CEOs in the Fortune 500.

Leaders have an opportunity to ensure a better future for themselves and their communities, if they’re ready to lock in. After all, she says, “You don’t need to be 23 to be an innovator.”

Here are more highlights from the conversation.

Why She Says Her Character Is Her Transferable Currency

“Yes, I am a CEO today. It's a Fortune 100, two and a half trillion dollars… But I don't own that. There will come a time that you get tapped on the shoulder for someone else to occupy the seat. Then who are you? So many of us are wrapped up in an identity of something that is rented. When a company has to make a shift, or when there's a downsize, or your job is eliminated, you’ve lost all of your confidence. You now are sitting here not believing that you are still that girl. And so telling myself, ‘I rent my title, I own my character’ does a couple things: It reminds me it's my character that I can take with me. That is my transferable currency. It gives me power to tell a company, ‘I know this is temporary. That's OK. I'm not beholden. Just watch me cook, watch me do my work.’”

Why She Considers Pressure a Privilege

“There's a way that I can position this frame and say to you all, ‘We're all doomed,’ and we can have some great conversation about being doomed. Or, we can say, ‘There's three. How do I own this rented title to become the fourth? There's 10, 11 percent of women running a Fortune 500. How do I represent that next? How do I, if that is my aspiration? How do I?’

“I look at it as a privilege to be able to demonstrate what excellence can look like. It can have straight hair and braids. It can be a girl from Texas, raising kids. All the things, right? And deliver outsized growth, outsized vision, outsized impact on behalf of the participants that we serve. I also want to be able to create new chapters on what leadership can look like. We have some amazing leaders, men and women, that you can learn from. I represent just another chapter in the book.”

Why She Tells Women Leaders: ‘This Is Our Moment’

“Alpha happens when there is disruption, and she is available today. The only question is, are you going to go get it? Right now with AI, agentic, quantum. Right now with all of the uncertainty in the world, everybody is trying to figure it out, from entrepreneurs to corporate, policymakers to not-for-profit leaders, all around the globe. This is our moment. This is our moment to operate with agility, to know that we are hyphenated… This is the moment when there is so much uncertainty. Those who do not have a fixed mindset, those who are not resting on yesteryears but believe that there can be a better tomorrow. This is our moment, and I believe that agility, intellectual curiosity, judgment, empathy, connection, looking at what is not seen — we all know what it's like to not be seen, so we should really master that trait to see what’s not in partnerships. Right now, when you have technology, there's no categories anymore. The opportunity cuts (horizontally). All of that is what so many of us have as a strength. It's time to lock in.”

Why She Chooses Optimism in the Face of Uncertainty

“I really refuse, as a mommy, as an auntie, to say that tomorrow will be worse than yesterday. Not on my watch. I am not telling my kids, ‘You’re doomed.’ And, by the way, when you put your shoulders back, and you pour into your colleagues at work, you give them vision, you give them calmness in the midst of uncertainty. You lock in. You get proximate. You unlock opportunity. You create solutions. You build momentum. That's how we create new jobs. That's how we create new opportunities. Yes, technology is going to shift jobs. Yes, some of you are in vulnerable roles. If you know that, then what? Agility, intellectual curiosity, your ownable assets — they are translatable… I will do my very best to ensure that my children have a better future, and all the kids that I care about have a better future. I'm not going to say that what people did before me that I got to benefit from, it's over.”

Why She Wants Everyone to Remember One Word

“Whether you have power, money, or influence — you have one, if not all — the one word that I will leave you all with is ‘change.’ What will you change because of your influence? What will you change because of your power? What will you change because of your financial wherewithal? If we can own our individual answer to that question, and then connect with like-minded people who have different talents than we do, we can compound the impact, and we can make change that benefits everyone.”