Joy Chen
陈愉
I know what it feels like to stand on the outside looking in. As a child of immigrants, I learned early how to navigate differences, build trust,and connect authentically. Those skills became the foundation for a career I never imagined: leading economic development as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles,recruiting global CEOs, and now helping others unlock the power of differences to achieve extraordinary results.
Joy's bio
Joy Chen is a keynote speaker and CEO of the Multicultural Leadership Institute. Rising from a shy child of immigrants, she became Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and later a Fortune 500 CEO headhunter. Her career spans leadership roles across three industries and three continents. She now helps leaders and teams thrive in today’s interconnected world.
As Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Joy spearheaded economic and workforce development in one of the world’s most diverse cities,home to speakers of more than 90 languages. She then joined the global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, recruiting Fortune 500 CEOs across North America, Europe, and Asia.
In a moment of unexpected serendipity, Joy’s leadership blog went viral in China, propelling her to fame as a bestselling author. Her book, Do Not Marry Before Age 30, became a runaway bestseller, earning her recognition from The Wall Street Journal as an“icon for Chinese women” and inspiring a generation to redefine success on their own terms. Building on this momentum, Joy founded a training organization that has empowered millions across Asia and the Americas to develop as global talent.
Today, as CEO of the Multicultural Leadership Institute, Joy equips leaders and teams to turn cultural differences into drivers of innovation, collaboration, and growth. Her thought leadership and transformative training programs for leading global companies have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Economist,CNN, and Vogue China.
Joy holds an MBA and an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and a B.A. from Duke University. She is a 2004 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, and brings a deeply global perspective to her work.
To watch a 3-minute Wall Street Journal video feature on Joy's impact in China, please scroll down.
Joy in the news
Why some immigrants settle in faster than others
The Economist features Joy as a child of immigrants who as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles is creating access to opportunities for Latinos and other immigrants.
"In Los Angeles, Joy Chen, a second-generation immigrant, the daughter of an MIT-educated Chinese father, is deputy mayor. She waves a sheaf of charts showing that the Latino population of the city has outstripped the white; that the new jobs for which demand will grow fastest will require a college degree; and that only one in ten Latino youngsters completes college. That is half the rate for the city's blacks.
Still more alarming is the performance of the immigrants' grandchildren. Of foreign-born Latinos, 35% have no more than a sixth-grade education, and another 27% do not finish high school. The comparable percentages for second-generation Latinos born in America are 1% and 17%. But for the third generation, they are still 1% and 19%. 'By this time, says Ms Chen, incongruously, 'they're us.'"
The Financial Times features Joy's cutting-edge work to help global companies solve their most pressing talent challenges in China.
The task of hiring top Chinese executives is made more challenging by a dearth of qualified candidates. A report from executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles gives several reasons for this: education and work opportunities of many now aged 50-60 were disrupted by the Cultural Revolution; the local talent pool was depleted by China’s “brain drain” of the 1980s and 1990s; there are few strong business schools in China; and local Chinese executives often lack global know-how.
“Companies want to localise but the majority of people who are local mainland Chinese don’t have experience with global business principles,” says Joy Chen, principal at Heidrick & Struggles.
Executive search firms are using unconventional means to identify qualified Chinese, who are not well documented in formal company rosters. Heidrick & Struggles 18 months ago began a big initiative to build a database of potential candidates by tapping networks used by Chinese émigrés, such as alumni associations of Chinese universities, civic associations, churches and recreational clubs.
Even when qualified candidates are located, it is not certain that they would be willing to return to China. But in the past five years there has been more interest from overseas Chinese as big potential for career development in China beckons.
This is especially true if in America someone has hit the “glass ceiling”, the invisible barrier said to keep women and minorities from reaching upper-level management. “Maybe they speak English with an accent or weren’t in a fraternity in college. Those kinds of things can lock them out of management jobs in the US,” says Ms. Chen. “But it’s those bicultural attributes that can be a big advantage going back.”
"Joy Chen is a superstar in China, the champion of young women known as "leftovers"—those who are still single in their mid-20s and scorned by all. Chen is the author of "Do Not Marry Before Age 30," a pop culture bestseller that offers dating advice and strives to help women reach their full potential. The book is a latest sensation among a new class of working women in China, some of the best educated in the world.
Women have been flocking by the thousands to her speaking engagements. "It's more of a guide on how to be happy and confident in your own life—how to love yourself," she said of the book. But it also includes techniques she learned while working as a global headhunter after her stint in city government.
'One of the things we keep hearing all over again in pop culture is there are very few role models with success in their career and a happy family life,' she said. 'My intention is to start the conversation these women need to have amongst themselves."
"On stage, celebrity Joy Chen is like a walking exclamation point. She speaks in rolling torrents and flashes a brilliant white smile. Her poise and polish are hallmarks of her much vaunted sisterhood — call them the Alpha Females of China.
Today, a hushed audience of tens of thousands of white-collar women — all young, educated, urban and all in black pumps — are eagerly eating up every word of her feminista rallying cry. “We don’t want to survive in society,” she says. “We want to lead society.”
It’s a brazen decree with a lot of lofty ideals behind it. But with doe-eyed looks and a certain gal pal appeal, Chen is a modern-day Joan of Arc."
Media in China
Joy has been widely covered across China's business and fashion media, including Caixin, Wall Street Journal Chinese, VOGUE, ELLE, GQ, Trends Health, Marie Claire, Cosmo, Esquire, SELF, and Harper's Bazaar.
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An insider guide to success for first-gen corporate professionals. Joy Chen—former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and Fortune 500 CEO headhunter—shares how to win in today’s corporate world.