Thasunda Duckett will move on from her position as CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co’s auto finance arm in order to lead as CEO of the bank’s biggest business — consumer banking — according to memos from the company.
Gordon Smith, CEO of consumer and community banking, will take on Duckett’s responsibilities in the interim, and the company is conducting a search for a new Auto Finance CEO, a Spokesman for Chase confirmed with AFN.
The bank’s auto finance portfolio currently boasts more than $60 billion in assets across 75% of U.S. franchised automotive dealers. Chase Auto Finance was the third largest auto lender in the country last year with total outstandings of more than $69 billion, which marked a 13.4% YOY increase, according to the 2016 Big Wheels Auto Finance Data Report. Prior to her role in auto finance, she also led the company’s national mortgage banking sales.
Thasunda “completely transformed our Auto Finance business in less than three years,” Smith said in a press release. “T is an extraordinary leader and talent,” he added in the memo. “For anyone who knows T, you know she has both [a] great IQ and EQ.”
As CEO of consumer banking, she will oversee a banking network with more than $807 billion in deposits and investments, 5,300 branches and more than 47,000 employees, including 3,000 financial advisers, the release states.
The move is part of a larger strategy to bring together the bank’s wealth-management businesses. Duckett succeeds Barry Sommers, who will co-lead a new Wealth Management & Investment Solutions division alongside Brian Carlin, who most recently served as chief financial officer of the bank’s asset management unit. Sommers used to be a part of a legacy Bear Stearns business that is now being folded into his new division alongside Chase Wealth Management, J.P. Morgan’s private bank, and J.P. Morgan Securities.
