so many of our Sunday conversations are
with people who make Houston proud today
it's a homegrown success story the Sunda
brown Duckett Duquette was not born in
houston but moved here as a child then
attended the University of Houston now
she's one of the most powerful women in
the banking world she sat down with
consumer expert Amy Davis to talk about
her path her passion and her passion to
help everyone achieve financial security
to Shonda Duckett you're the CEO of
Chase consumer banking and you're in
town to accept a Distinguished Alumni
Award for the University of Houston
congratulations thank you thank you so
much yeah but I mean that's just a drop
in the bucket compared to a lot of the
accolades you've been given most
recently top ten most powerful women in
banking top 100 most influential blacks
in corporate America top 300 most
powerful executives in corporate America
so of those which make you most proud
Wow I think all of them make me proud in
the sense of it aligns with my purpose
you know my purpose in life is to
inspire others and when I can represent
that by being a powerful woman in
banking or being a top african-american
I think it just gives a nod to the
possibility for other women or other
young people that may share a similar
story to me and so all of those awards
is just more of a nod to hopefully
hopefully sharing with some young person
what's possible we thought and I think a
lot of people would agree what makes
your story so interesting and your role
it's such a large Bank is your backstory
and sort of how you got there I mean you
weren't born in Texas but your family
moved here sort of from a financial
hardship yes so my parents rosie and
otis brown we lived in rochester new
york that's where i was born and my dad
worked for xerox and back then you could
be a blue-collar worker and move around
and so we moved from xerox to new jersey
and when that location closed down my
father decided that we would follow the
company and move to Texas and the reason
why I think that's just so important is
there was a couple of life moments that
have shaped me to be Who I am today one
when we moved there was no relocation
package for a blue-collar worker at that
time and so we took everything that we
owned and my brothers and I there's
three kids my mom and my dad and we
packed everything in a car and we drove
from New Jersey to Texas with all of our
belongings which is not a lot when you
have five people in a car right
and so I started my life in Texas
sitting on crates we didn't have
furniture when we started and I think
that's just an important moment for me
because one it really underscored the
sacrifice that my parents made to just
provide a better future for us I think
too when you think about the journey
Pryor's even just moving but
understanding what it's like to have
financial struggles or financial
insecurity knowing what it's like to
have karate lessons and your parents
don't have enough money to get you
through all of the lessons or to start
piano lessons and you couldn't finish or
knowing what it's like to open up your
refrigerator and not seeing much and not
knowing where your meal is going to come
from but somehow someway your parents
made away all of those moments really
shape my passion for financial health
yeah and talking about financial
security people aren't saving I mean
they're certainly not saving as much as
they should right or I heard a story
about your father
and you went to school and we're working
at Fannie Mae and realized your father
didn't have enough money to retire yeah
financial health is personal for me and
you heard the back story a little bit
about how it grew up but when I
graduated from the University of Houston
and I started working and my father was
sharing with me his pension and what he
has and all he had was his pension and
that was not enough for him to retire
and what really bothered me is that he
just didn't know about a 401 K he had
access to it but he didn't have the
information to understand that it was
for him and so it wasn't until my father
is now in his late 40s having to begin
to start his 401k and so when you ask
the question around financial health
it is important here in Houston 22% of
Houstonians have a zero net worth and so
when you think about the opportunity
it's not what you make its what you keep
to Shawna Duquette thank you so much for
talking with the thank you so much
you've got a branch to open I do Wow
blown away amazing great conversation
was incredible that branch that Duquette
just opened is at the University of
Houston she was there on campus for the
unveiling last week a proud moment
of course you can see the full
conversation on our website you can get
information about a new chase program
that helps you save for emergencies with
incentives
just head to click to Houston dot-com
slash Sunday