Name: Deborah Jackson
Title: Chairwoman, board of directors, Eastern Bank
Age: 66
Industry experience: 35 years
Eastern Bank has tapped Deborah Jackson to lead its board of directors, marking the first time in the bank’s 200-year history that a woman will lead the board, and only the second time that a person of color has held the position. Jackson, who has been on the board of directors for 17 years, succeeds Wendell Knox, who had been lead director since 2009 and a member of Eastern’s board since 1995.
Jackson is currently president of Cambridge College, an institution she has led since 2011. Prior to Cambridge College, Jackson was CEO of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts, vice president of the Boston Foundation, and a member of numerous nonprofit boards for companies dedicated to health, human services and education. Jackson is also on the board of John Hancock Investments and the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. She was previously on the boards of the Boston Stock Exchange and Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan.
More than 40 percent of Eastern’s board of directors is comprised of women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, with the goal of continuously increasing diverse representation. The company was recently named to the GetKonnected15 list, which showcases Massachusetts companies with notable board diversity.
“I am very honored,” Jackson told Banker & Tradesman. “I take this responsibility very seriously. I feel a real sense of obligation and duty.”
Q: How does it feel to be the first chairwoman of Eastern Bank’s board of directors and second person of color to lead the board?
A: I think as it relates to the issue of both gender and race, I often think about Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder who said that people often ask him, “What does it mean to be the first African-American governor?” And he said, “It only matters to be the first if there is a second.” I feel that same way about so many moments in my life when I’ve been a first, that it only matters if I’ve opened a door and how I engage with institutions where I am the first, but it is also symbolically what it means for other women and other people of color who are looking. I am strong believer that if you don’t see yourself in a space and a place then it’s hard to imagine you could be there, so that first is always a way of changing dramatically the dynamic of what other young women and girls and people of color see. They see you there and they think, “I could do that.”
Q: Who are some of your role models that helped you get to this point in your career?
A: I’d have to say my mother, who passed early in life, was an incredible woman, very strong but also very compassionate. Some of my most influential role models honestly were people like Harriet Tubman. I loved learning about woman who I thought were courageous because I thought they did things I couldn’t imagine myself doing. Rosa Parks, who by sitting and refusing to move catalyzed a movement, is another of mine, and also Helen Keller. She had disabilities that others thought would constrain her and she became influential as an activist and author.
As I’ve grown up, I still have role models. Obviously, of course, Michelle Obama. I think she just embodied the magnificence of today’s contemporary opportunities for women in all dimensions with such poise and grace. I look at a woman in business like Carla Harris, one of the leading women on Wall Street, an African-American and managing director at Morgan Stanley. And honestly one of my most beloved and influential members is Wendell Knox, who just stepped down as a lead director at Eastern Bank. He was on the board when I joined it. Wendell has always been there for me and helped me grow as a director, as a colleague and now in my role as lead director. We never stop needing mentors; I am a big believer in that. They just change over time.
Q: What are your goals for Eastern while you are chair?
A: One of my first priorities is to make sure on my watch and under my tenure in this role that we continue to practice and evolve our best practices. We have to stay vigilant. Another area concerns the bank and its future. We want to continue to support the board and our great CEO Bob Rivers, while mapping out a strategy for growth and expansion in order to serve more communities. That’s huge for us.
The third thing has to do with innovation. That’s an area that Bob talks about a lot and has been driving at the bank. You can’t do the same things the same way and have a future that reflects growth and change and response to markets, customers and the ways business is done. There are so many interesting opportunities in the fintech space, but it doesn’t all work for us. So, it’s the marriage of the business we are in and what we are trying to do for the business that has banking, insurance and wealth management. What are the innovative spaces and partnerships and approaches that work for Eastern? That is not going to be easy; this is new territory.
Q: What advice do you have for other women and people of color taking leadership positions at banks?
A: The first thing I think is for women to really know and internalize that they are needed. They need to really recognize there is a business imperative for diversity in boards. You cannot have innovation if you have a myogenous perspective sitting around the table, so the issue of diversity and heterogenous thought and background and gender, race, cultural experience, all of those; that richness helps us think about things in a different way and look at things from a different perspective. The companies without woman at the table are not as rich and robust in the way they think about challenges in the future as they could be.
The second is to know yourself. I think when we are being invited to serve on boards, recognize that you are not coming as a token. I mean, there are both hard and soft skills that we bring into the room that matter and make a positive contribution. Know what you bring and know what you need to learn. Be prepared to work hard and choose wisely and then have fun along the way.
Jackson’s Five Tips for Advancing and Championing Women and Diversity on Boards:
- Achieve a culture of enthusiasm and support for diversity on the board
- Develop a plan and strategy
- Look for diversity where it exists
- Be authentic
- Measure your results
