A career spent changing systems.
Joanna Rees is a systems changer. She farms for dissent through active listening—bringing different perspectives into the conversation to uncover new possibilities and create lasting change.
That practice has a track record. Joanna serves on the boards of FICO, Inception Fertility, and Illumyn. At FICO she chairs Leadership Development and Compensation and sits on Nominating & Governance and the Executive Committee. During her tenure, FICO has delivered top-ten total shareholder returns on the S&P 500.
As Chairman of West Studios, she guided the strategic evolution of category-defining companies including Twitter (now X), Square, Ro, Newfront, and Impossible Foods. She began at Benton & Bowles, led multiple brands at Danone, moved into investment banking at BA Securities and Vrolyk & Co., and founded VSP Capital. Her strategic vision and tenacious execution were instrumental in launching Endeavor Catalyst, a groundbreaking impact investment fund within Endeavor Global, now with over $540 million under management.
Joanna is a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow and an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, where she serves as a Senior Seminar Moderator, a role built almost entirely on the discipline of drawing out the dissenting voice in the room. Her civic leadership includes a mayoral candidacy in San Francisco and a Senior Partnership at The B Team, advancing sustainable business practices globally. She serves on the nonprofit boards of The Representation Project, Endeavor Global, and Illumyn Impact.
She holds a BS in Psychology from Duke University, where she competed as an NCAA Division I gymnast, and an MBA in Finance from Columbia.
