Joy Booker runs races and wins medals as a podium-reaching triathlete. She also brings people together and maintains partnerships as a managing director and head of institutional client relations in the Americas at the $169.7 billion PineBridge Investments.
“Given no two clients are ever the same, my day to day is constantly evolving,” Booker said. But the positive and collaborative culture that the self-described “person-person” fosters with her colleagues enables them to cross the finish line together in creating solutions for clients.
After studying computer science at the State University of New York, Binghamton, Booker worked in management consulting, developing large-scale enterprise solutions for Price Waterhouse and later Deloitte.
Exposure to domestic and international clients that included banks and investment firms piqued her interest in transitioning from the technology side to the business side. Obtaining an MBA from the business school at Columbia University led her to transition into investment management, making her way to New York Life Investment Management and Mercer before joining PineBridge in 2011.
Recognized for her work to advance diversity in the industry, Booker is a member of the DEI advisory board at PineBridge. She is also secretary of the executive board at the Opportunity Network, which strives to improve professional mobility for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds.
On her desk is a rack with medals from races she has competed in — which, like her firm’s clients and assets, she hopes to add more of in the future. Accompanying the medals is a quotation from author R.S. Grey: “She believed she could, so she did.”
“It reminds us that our beliefs have the power to shape our reality,” Booker said. “And when we truly believe in ourselves, there is nothing that can hold us back.”