Joy Chen
陈愉
As a child of immigrants, I've always been compelled by the question of how to connect across cultures. Growing up, I yearned to make meaningful change, but I didn't know if I could, because at school, I was so awkward.
I resolved to learn the unwritten rules of mainstream American society. After many difficult encounters and with the support of pivotal mentors, I navigated from the fringes to the core of Corporate America.
At age 31, I was appointed Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, where I led economic and workforce development in a global city where over 90 languages are spoken.
From there, I was recruited to the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, and for 7 years found CEOs and Board members for Fortune 500 companies across North America, Europe and Asia.
My pivot to leadership training was serendipitous: my leadership blog went viral in China, launching me there as a keynote speaker, best-selling author (Do Not Marry Before Age 30《30岁前别结婚》and How to Get Lucky in Your Career《30岁趁势而为》), and founder of a leadership training organization that served millions.
The trade war and pandemic brought me back to the States, where I established the Multicultural Leadership Institute. We enable leadership teams to engage and mobilize every colleague and client. I'm passionate about helping organizations navigate complex cultural landscapes to unlock new levels of innovation and growth.
I am so blessed to be doing my life's work, and to be partnering with many incredible people like you.
When I’m not working, you can often find me playing pickleball with friends, or hanging out with my husband and our two teen girls. We live in the Pasadena area of Los Angeles, where we keep a backyard farm with 8 hens we call The Ladies.
Joy's bio
Joy Chen equips audiences to bridge cultures and elevate their impact. As a keynote speaker and CEO of the Multicultural Leadership Institute, she rose from a shy child of immigrants to become Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and a Fortune 500 CEO headhunter. Her groundbreaking work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Financial Times, CNN, and Vogue China.
Joy regularly speaks at leading companies like Citi, Dow, Genentech, GM, and LinkedIn. Drawing on real-life stories, cutting-edge science, and actionable strategies, she helps audiences bridge cultural divides to lead with confidence and influence. She has also served as a brand ambassador for Olay, SK-II, Pro-X, and Mercedes.
Her journey is one of serendipity and transformation. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Joy struggled to decode the unwritten rules of American success. By learning to fluidly bridge cultures, she rose to the top of three industries across three continents.
As Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Joy led economic and workforce development for one of the world’s most diverse cities, where more than 90 languages are spoken. Later, at the global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, she recruited Fortune 500 CEOs across North America, Europe, and Asia. In a moment of unexpected serendipity, her leadership blog went viral in China, launching her as a bestselling author and founder of a training organization that has empowered millions across Asia and the Americas.
Now back in the United States, Joy leads the Multicultural Leadership Institute, where she and her team develop the next generation of global leaders at some of the world’s most influential organizations.
Joy holds an MBA and M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, a BA from Duke University, and a Diversity & Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. She is a 2004 American Marshall Memorial Fellow.
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.
