Dr. Saj-nicole Joini, CEO
Cambridge International Group Ltd.

D uring her college and graduate years at UCSD, Saj-nicole Joni knew that she wanted to be a mathematician, involved in research and teaching at a great university. She had already given up her first aspiration of becoming a concert pianist when she realized that she wasn’t sufficiently talented as a pianist, and that mathematics was one of her greatest aptitudes and joys.

In the early 1970’s, with affirmative action newly in place and focus of UC departments, Joni, at age 24, was in the first class of mathematics Ph.D.’s that allowed graduate support for women. “I worked hard to fight the prejudice against women in the mathematics field. UCSD had just started a marvelous mathematics program with access to faculty who saw what I could do - and encouraged me to tackle difficult projects,” she recalls. She also holds her B.A. and M.A. in Mathematics from UCSD.

Saj-nicole Joni was the first woman to hold a tenure track faculty appointment in Applied Mathematics at MIT and in Mathematics at Carnegie-Mellon. While she was a young faculty member, Joni began consulting to high-tech companies, which introduced her to a wide range of business issues and problems. She soon discovered that she was a natural at solving tough questions on business strategy.

She recalls that her decision to transition from academia to the business world was painful. “I was at the forefront and one of very few women that were successful. As much as I loved mathematics, I realized that my greatest talents lay well beyond my scientific work. Still, thinking about leaving a tenure-track faculty position in mathematics was difficult.”

She started to audit business school classes, taking courses in finance, operational management and strategy. “I was increasingly intrigued and drawn to solving larger business questions that cut across many disciplines and had a greater impact on lives and economies,” she explains. “It was surprising to everyone when I left academia and went on to have a much broader impact in the business world. Over and over, I was told, ‘You just can’t do that!’.”

“I was at the forefront and one of very few women that were successful. As much as I loved mathematics, I realized that my greatest talents lay well beyond my scientific work. Still, thinking about leaving a tenure-track faculty position in mathematics was difficult."

Again, Joni was one of the first women in senior executive positions. In the 1980’s, some businesses conceded it was possible to make a little room for women and minorities in their upper ranks.  “I was very much a part of that first wave of women to break the barriers.” By the time she was recruited by Microsoft to serve as Division Director, East US and Canada, she was already a well-seasoned executive with expertise in the global and cultural complexities of strategy, customers, science and technology.

However, Joni says that it was not until after I stepped down as an executive in a global company and 'retired', that I found my real life’s work, which is a gift of enormous proportions: Today I serve as a behind-the-scenes strategy advisor to top executives of large corporations and foundations and universities,” explains Joni. “I work with leaders who are so committed to creating such extraordinary results and futures for their people.” Today she draws from her pioneering experience as a key business strategist and advisor to corporate executives, boards, and joint ventures. 

As President and CEO of Cambridge International Group Ltd., the successful consulting firm she launched to further her advisory work, Joni is internationally recognized in both the business and academic communities. She writes a column on business leadership for Forbes.com and is the author of "The Third Opinion: How Successful Leaders Use Outside Insight to Create Superior Results," a book published by Portfolio/Penguin Putnam. She is also a senior fellow at Katzenbach Partners and a Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.  

“In the war for talent, CEOs and their teams are looking for accomplished people in their respective fields of expertise, who have an underlying discipline, good instincts, can think across boundaries and convention, and can lead and manage other people. My mathematical immersion and training served me phenomenally well by training me to ask relevant questions, to think with a rigor and concentration, and to have the mental confidence to now work in different realms. The discipline of mathematical thinking, combined with my insatiable curiosity and wide ranging knowledge of many subjects, has served me well as I have successfully taken on challenge after challenge.  Business leaders whom I work with do not think of me as a math whiz, but have retained me as their “third opinion advisor” to be a provocative and powerful thinking partner who challenges and supports them on their toughest judgment calls.”

“Business leaders whom I work with do not think of me as a math whiz, but have retained me as their "third opinion advisor" to be a provocative and powerful thinking partner who challenges and supports them on their toughest judgment calls.”

Now the challenges for Joni are how to maximize her impact – “giving back to the world,” by supporting great leaders whose success we are all counting on. How do I make myself findable and accessible to the leaders who might need my counsel -  who are making the major decisions that impact people and economies? How do I pay attention to issues that are brought to my attention? How do I help create more third-opinion advisors and thinking partners for the leaders of the world’s future?”