Jacksonville’s business leaders want to put more women in executive roles

Jacksonville, FL — Debbie Buckland is the market president for BB&T, now Trust Bank.

She’s been working in financial services for a long time, but she didn’t start out at the top.

“I started as a teller right out of college, and so I like to think of my path to leadership as a little bit non-traditional,” Buckland said.

Through hard work, Buckland was quickly promoted and worked her way up in the company.

Thursday, she joined powerful women on the steps of the JAX Chamber to address the gender gap in northeast Florida.

JAX Chamber announced it will hire a vice president whose job will be to attract and retain women who may be overlooked for top executive jobs.

Nina Waters, with the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, helped secure the funding for that position for the next three years.

Waters told Action News Jax a study by the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Coalition found women weren’t being groomed for leadership roles after college.

“We looked at women on corporate boards, which is another really troubling statistic for northeast Florida. Most corporate boards in northeast Florida either don’t have women or have fewer than 25 percent of women on the corporate boards,” Waters said.

Jax Chamber presented 11 major findings from that study. One of the significant findings was that women graduate high school and college at a higher rate than men. That means women are more prepared for leadership roles at a younger age, but men are more likely to be transitioned into those roles.

The study also looked at other key issues like women in STEM positions and pay inequality.

Florida ranks 45th in the nation for women in management positions.

“54 percent of our work force is women, and when leadership ranks not just in the C-Suite, but in all of our community do not reflect our world in northeast Florida, that’s an economic development issue,” Buckland said.

These are troubling statistics women like Buckland are trying to change.

The chamber will be issuing a job application for the Vice President of Elevate Women and will hire for that position early next year.