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Her family is steeped in math and science. Jen’s father was a software engineer; her mother worked in finance. An uncle was a nuclear physicist; another is an electrical engineer. An aunt was a biologist; another is also in finance.
Jen traces some of her family’s passion for STEM to her maternal grandparents. Her grandfather, who was also an electrical engineer, held 24 patents. Each of his grandchildren would excel in mathematics. “I would go grocery shopping with him when I was three years old and he would ask me how many eggs were in a dozen and how many would be left if he took two,” she recalled.
Her grandmother also worked with numbers – at Prudential in Newark, New Jersey. She was “an absolute inspiration to me, a trailblazer,” Jen says of her grandmother, who left the workforce when Jen’s mother was born and later went back to school for her master’s degree in education and became a high school math teacher.
As Jen got older, math was so prevalent in their house that “it wouldn’t be crazy to be asked the times tables at the dinner table.”
Never doubting her skills with numbers, Jen majored in finance. After graduating from Boston University, she was persuaded by a friend in New Jersey to return home for work after circulating her resume at the local branch of Morgan Stanley. Three interviews later, she was hired into the firm’s then-new Analyst Rotational Program, a two-year opportunity to work in three different eight-month placements and explore different parts of wealth management.
Wall Street wasn’t necessarily on her list, but after the interviews she realized that Morgan Stanley provided “a lot of opportunities” to explore different roles and was an amazing organization to work for.
After graduating from the analyst program, she landed in the firm’s business management office, where she worked for seven years for “some amazing leaders,” before moving into business development and field training and becoming the division’s chief operating officer. This led to Jen’s promotion to Head of Field Engagements.
Today, looking back on the “zigs and turns” of her career, she reflects on the opportunities she never saw coming. “I tell the team, ‘It’s all down to you and your hard work and dedication. Great things happen to people with all these qualities.”
Jen is proud of the rotation program she attended and now leads. She also leads the Virtual Engagement Program, which recruits new career talent. An influential leader, she is dedicated to building the next generation of leaders and places a strong emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. She has always had a talent for “connecting the dots and connecting people”.
Those who work with Jen say they admire how she makes her team better by leading, motivating and pushing them to go above and beyond. “Get outside your comfort zone,” she tells others. “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Jen’s goals and ambitions are not limited to her career. On a personal note, one of her bucket list items was to visit all 30 major league baseball stadiums. “It’s a fun way to watch sports and get around the country,” says Jenn, who made her final three last season. Now she has turned to football. “I’ve already been to three new football stadiums.”
When Jen got the call that she was named a 2022 CREATOR—joining a distinguished group of women and men, all nominated by their peers to serve as advocates, innovators, and innovators for the advancement of women—she asked, “Are you sure ? Did you really mean me?”
Characteristically, Jen took time for recognition to promote others. “The MAKERS movement shines a spotlight on the achievements of women and how they can succeed in anything they put their minds to,” says Jen, noting how grateful she is to have grown up in a loving household with a family that “always told me I could to be everything I wanted to be. Jen admits that not all girls learn this. “That’s why programs like MAKERS are so vital to raising the next generation.”
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