January 2011
Joseph Wilson, MBA ’86
Recipient of the 2010 Wilbur Parker Distinguished Alumni Award
Joseph Wilson, managing director of global credit sales at Citi Bank, loves to work with people. Whether working with Citi Bank clients or students in his community, these interactions are the most rewarding aspect of what he does.
As someone with a natural affinity for relationship building, Wilson says “The Johnson School was the perfect choice for me.” The school’s close-knit environment helped him to make the contacts he needed to launch his career in investment banking, and enabled him to build relationships that have remained active long after graduation. “I have had a longer and more eventful career than I ever could have imagined,” Wilson says.
At Citi Bank, Wilson leads his sales force, helps drive revenues in credit sales, and markets credit products to a diverse group of institutional clients. He is also responsible for developing relationships and bringing the full resources of the global firm to his accounts. “The most compelling part of my job is the extensive client interaction,” he says. “This is a relationship business, and the day-to-day dialogue with clients is essential to developing a thriving business relationship.”
Wilson is also an active and dedicated member of his community, and contributes his time and efforts to numerous organizations. As a board member of the Hope Chest Scholarship Foundation, an organization that provides need-based scholarships to minority students in New Jersey-resident who are matriculating full-time at a post-secondary educational institution, Wilson focuses on fundraising and development in addition to oversight duties. “The most rewarding aspect of the role,” he says, “is the interaction with bright, energetic students.”
As a founding board member of the Bronx Preparatory Charter School, Wilson helped to develop a business plan and curriculum, and eventually, to secure a charter. The 2009-2010 school year marked the school’s 10th anniversary. Since inception, Bronx Prep has graduated three classes of seniors and 100% of the school’s graduates have earned admission to college. “We started the school in a rented church space in the South Bronx. Eventually we raised the funds necessary to buy land and build a state-of-the art facility,” he says.
Wilson also serves on a committee at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston focused on helping the institute continue to grow, attract talented people, and better serve its patients – an effort a Johnson classmate recruited him to join. “Though I was initially uncertain how someone who lives in New Jersey and has no medical or science background could add value to this committee, I quickly learned that Dana Farber was taking a bold step to truly add diverse views and opinions to their decision-making processes,” he says.
Established in 2003 in honor of Wilbur Parker '50, MBA '50, Johnson's first African-American graduate, the Wilbur Parker Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni who demonstrate outstanding professional achievement, commitment to their community, and who embody Johnson's shared values of mutual respect, collaboration, integrity and trust, pride and accountability, professionalism and investment in self.
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