Jimmy McMillian: J.P. Morgan Sustainability & Climate Expert

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My path really begins at my childhood. I have two sisters who are also very successful in their pursuits, largely because our parents were very focused on preparing us from a young age. Outside of school, we were always in math and science training programs, doing research, and interning. Like a Tetris, making sure those foundational layers of our skillsets were solid put us in great positions to execute in most all of our endeavors after. For me, that was complemented by the communication and team skills I gained by being a college athlete. After high school, I went to Amherst College, where I played varsity soccer, majored in computer science and math, and tallied a lot of hours working on-campus jobs.

After my junior year at Amherst, I interned at Citi in the Enterprise Infrastructure Operations & Technology group, but saw myself as better suited for the pace and intensity of investment banking. Combining my liberal arts and analytical backgrounds I returned to Citi after graduation to join a team of data scientists in the Strategic Advisory Solutions team. The group was a team of investment bankers armed with data science skillsets and vice versa, where I was able to learn from folks who I believe are doing some of the best in class descriptive analytics work on the street. There I contributed to the data-driven work for the M&A group spearheaded all things ESG and financial sponsors analytics.

I spent three years on that team before joining the a similar team of brilliant bankers at J.P. Morgan who wanted to add more firepower to their analytics capabilities, and that's where I work now. I'm an associate in J.P. Morgan's the Corporate Advisory group working to deliver unique and differentiated advise to corporate investment banking clients on matters of corporate finance, sustainability, and M&A structuring.

Professionally... finding and understanding motivations can certainly be a task in itself, but I've generally found my "why"s by remembering two things: (1) careers are long and there's no shame in working. Most people work for at least 40 years and have opportunities to make many changes to their paths along the way, and (2) the things that fit into my view of a "good" world and the ways in which I can align my work with those things. There are very few perfect jobs, and it can be difficult to gain the knowledge, skills, and credibility to be considered for something that seems like a dream job-- but also, sometimes life just works out.

Personally... my motivation is derived entirely from community and the concept of the collective. I grew up in a very diverse and integrated environment in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD, and both sides of my family are survivors of American slavery. We have a legacy of a strong sense of justice and fighting for enfranchisement of all people, and an understanding through our oral histories that the work that you do is not always -- and in fact -- very rarely will benefit you and your generation. I grew up around people from all over the world and all different circumstances, so I'm very personally motivated to seek and cultivate conditions that create intersectional and comfortable environments for any and all people. That's a lot of what drives me and helps me when all else falls away.

I tend to do pretty well with challenges and setbacks. A lifetime of training and experience does you well! Like I mentioned, my childhood was very intense in terms of preparation to execute at very competitive levels of academia and sports.

When things get difficult, I often find myself reflecting on the inner strength that I have but might not be able to muster up. Reflecting on a time where you overcame or rose to an occasion in the past, whether a solo in jazz band, standing up to give a presentation in class, or putting yourself out there in a social situation. Similarly to parts of our physique, I find a lot of mental and psychological challenges similar muscles, the more you practice and train them, the stronger and more trusted they can get. In those times when things seems challenging, remember you've overcome challenges in the past and you're here now. What's one more time.

I have a lot of mentors in my life. My dad always says, "You can't learn anything new just talking to yourself," which I mostly agree with. It can help to remember that everyone is doing this life thing for the first time, and we'll learn a lot along the way, but experience can often be the best teacher. As I continue to encounter a changing world, I find it invaluable to gather the knowledge from those with more and different experience than I have and take what I can from them to improve my decision making and philosophy.

Be Interesting. Be Interested. Be kind.

I was told this as my freshman year at an Amherst Soccer alumni networking night and it's stuck with me since. Especially in the US, many of us have access to so many people, information, and resources that can enrich us beyond belief. We're also all different, every one of us-- so I think it's important for each of us that we do a bit of self discovery and embrace things that resonate with us. Everyone has those particularities, and not only sharing but giving space for others to share too is how we bring the best out of each other and feel a sense of connection. Whether it's an activity, an art, the long list of questions about the world you keep in your head-- sharing those parts of ourselves with each other personally, professionally allows each of us to be at our best.

And just be kind. You never know the impact you have on people on a given day, and genuine care goes a long way.

I don't think I had any lack of advice coming out of high school haha, but some great advice that I received and has suited me well is that the easiest way to stand out is to be good a the easy things. It works across disciplines, but focusing on fundamentals in whatever you do is (1) something that a lot of people don't want to do, and (2) a great way to eventually develop mastery. I think this is especially applicable in a world where AI is reducing the need for a lot of basic understanding of things. If you are fundamentally sound you'll have a leg up on a lot of others who take the easy way out, and confidence in approaching more difficult problems going forward.