Joyce Johnson-Miller
Two finance females receive top honors
The Reiman School of Finance introduced its 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award winners Feb. 7. Joyce Johnson-Miller (BSBA 1987) and Jennie M. Petersen (BSBA 1995) were the two honorees.
“These two women are examples of the career success that can be achieved when Reiman graduates combine their skills and knowledge with hard work and dedication,” said Finance Professor Finance Mac Clouse, who oversaw the ceremony via Zoom. “The Reiman School is extremely happy to be able to honor them in this way.”
Joyce Johnson-Miller, chairman and chief investment officer for Pacific Gate Capital, a value-oriented fund of funds that focuses on U.S. private credit investments, has 33 years of experience investing in the global debt and equity marketplaces and managing over $5 billion in global investments.
Johnson-Miller has served on 24 boards in all capacities including chairman and lead director. Her prior investment experiences include senior management positions at Citibank, ING, Relativity Capital, a women and minority owned firm, and Cerberus Capital Management, a $45 billion investment firm. At Cerberus, she founded JJM, LLC, a $300 million private equity fund that successfully invested in women and minority owned companies.
Jennie Peterson
Jennie M. Peterson is a consultant with Russell Reynolds Associates, a leading executive search and leadership advisory firm, where she advises a diverse group of public and private health care companies. Peterson has 20-plus years of experience in health care leadership.
Before joining Russell Reynolds Associates, Peterson served as vice president at DaVita, leading a business unit on nephrology physician practices. As vice president of corporate development and chief of staff at WellPoint, Inc., now Anthem, she managed acquisitions and investments to grow the company and improve its portfolio of products.
Earlier in her career, Peterson, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, served as a vice president in the health care investment banking division at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
During the award ceremony, the two women fielded questions, some of which were on women in finance. Both said they believed opportunities have improved for women to enter and thrive in the field.
“I think we’ve seen dramatic improvement,” Johnson-Miller said. “Initially, we saw few returning after they had children but now that’s changing and more are coming back after they have children.”
Peterson agreed and added, “It’s possible. Don’t be discouraged. Take time to get the right mentors and work hard to seek out the right opportunities and get the right support system around you. I have my own personal board of directors and I run my big decisions by them and that helps me stay on track.”
The women shared the following sites for networking for women in finance: Pewin.org, Private Equity Women Investor Network; Fwa.org, Financial Women’s Association; 100women.org, Women in Finance; and Goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000women, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program.
Johnson-Miller and Peterson also said they felt it was important for new hires, both men and women, to take advantage of organizations’ training programs as they begin their careers.
“Good training programs can help you improve the skillset you learned at DU,” Johnson-Miller said. “You want to use the experience in those training programs to lock in your skillset.”
Peterson added, “When you’re in a standard training program, take note of what you like, what interests you as you move through it to figure out what areas you like. And take on the difficult assignments.”
The women were also asked their opinion on environmental, social and corporate (ESG) governance, the evaluation of a firm’s collective conscientiousness for social and environmental factors. Both felt strongly that ESG efforts are important in today’s business landscape. And Clouse said the Reiman School is introducing a new course called Sustainable Finance this spring.
