Meet our CEO:

Joy Chen

Joy Chen is the renowned executive recruiter and speaker the Wall Street Journal  named a "Lean-In Guru" and the Los Angeles Times refers to simply as "The Networker." As Founder & CEO of JOYOUS, she recruits and develops the leaders companies need to drive inclusion and innovation.

Before forming JOYOUS, Joy was a principal at global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, leading board and executive search and onboarding projects for Fortune 500 companies across North America, Europe and Asia. She also served on the firm's global training team tasked with training newly-minted partners in best practices in executive search.

Joy previously served as a Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, where she led economic and workforce development for America's 2nd largest city. In this capacity, she led initiatives which have created access to new skills and jobs for millions of Californians.

Joy also is a popular speaker and writer. In China, she authored two best-sellers, 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》, which launched me as a celebrity career guru, with brand partners including Olay, SK-II and Mercedes.

Frequently recognized as an industry thought leader, Joy has been profiled across media including CNN, CBS News, ABC News, Vogue China, Esquire China, and Caixin. 

Joy holds a Diversity & Inclusion certification from Cornell University, MBA and M.A. in Urban Planning degrees from UCLA, and a BA from Duke University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two  daughters.

The Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times refers to Joy simply as "The Networker."

"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."

-- OZY Media

ABC News

Excerpts from this feature:

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."