Call it chance, fate or perhaps both.
“Nearly two years ago I was on a panel—there were 100 CFOs on that call. Joy Mbanugo was one of them,” recalls Rob Castaneda, ServiceRocket CEO.
The two immediately connected. “I shared my love of NetSuite and our mission; Joy shared some great insights. We chatted about someday working together.”
Fast forward to 2023. The Silicon Valley-based professional has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer.
Welcome to the ServiceRocket family, Joy!
She’s already contributed her expertise to Under the Dome and brings 20+ years experience to ServiceRocket’s executive team.
“Joy’s impact has been immediate,” says Peter Marquez, ServiceRocket CCO. “Great players make others around them better. Her empathy, intelligence and creativity inspire Rocketeers at all levels to learn and grow.”
Joy is passionate about learning.
After earning a Masters of Accountancy from Case Western Reserve University and a Juris Doctorate from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law as a John C. Louis Stokes Scholar, she contributed her knowledge at a variety of well-known companies.
Most recently she oversaw multiple teams and projects at Google, including Google Cloud Partnerships, management of Alphabet’s financial data and a Treasury Tax initiative that streamlined the cash management of $100B+.
Prior to that, at BlackRock, she led the taxation of financial instruments, securities lending (including $3 trillion assets under management), information reporting and withholding and more; at EY, Joy provided tax and audit services to clients in international tax, financial services and capital markets.
Now, as CFO at ServiceRocket, Joy leads the company’s finance, accounting, and workforce planning teams, where she oversees strategic finance, forecasting, budgeting, treasury management, tax, comp planning and more.
She also looks forward to helping Rocketeers develop their careers.
“I enjoyed leading multiple employee resource groups (ERGs) at Google and hope to continue that role at ServiceRocket.”
The Cincinnati, Ohio native explains why she joined the company and what helped shape her extraordinary career.
Joy: I like that ServiceRocket is dedicated to a Think Team value as well as the Grow the Tree. Share the Fruit program that rewards Rocketeers for their individual and collective achievements.
“This company is not about ‘all profits at any cost’.”
Profits are great, of course, but it’s awesome that the company puts people first. That’s enabled many Rocketeers to grow their careers here.
Joy: My team has an open door policy; I encourage everyone to come to me with anything, even as a newbie myself. I am also dedicated to my team’s career development and have already scheduled talent reviews for finance, accounting, and workforce planning.
Joy: Everyone feels very close here. There’s a familiarity with each other that has made my onboarding a very smooth process. I also feel like I have been able to hit the ground running.
Joy: My family. They are always challenging me to do bigger and better things. When I was growing up, everyone—my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, brother and my community—encouraged me to go to both business and law school!
And last but not least my husband (who is also in finance) pushed me and said two years ago, “I think you’re ready to be a CFO.”
Another factor was living in London and working in financial services. It changed my career’s trajectory. I had the opportunity to work with people from all over the world, which is a bit different than working for an international company in the US. That experience made me appreciate a diversity of cultures beyond traditional Western culture.
London has a very vibrant professional landscape with an old-world backdrop that’s steeped in world history. The city is also an important center of global finance. Living there enabled me to expand my knowledge of international capital markets. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world.
Joy: I present on a myriad of topics, from innovation in finance, capital markets, career development and diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Joy: My mission is to push people to their limits to achieve ultimate success and challenge cultural stereotypes.
I believe companies should empower, not hinder, employees from exploring their intellectual curiosity. They must enable them to commit to a lifetime of learning and move beyond traditional corporate silos.
Diversity, inclusion, and equity— especially in finance—is my passion. My goal is to encourage more women and minorities to become CFOs, CEOs, company founders, and venture capitalists. The sky’s the limit. I’m inspired to push myself to higher heights as an example to others.
"Although adversity may come your way, keep on pushing!"
Joy: Three books come to mind:
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office
Joy: Commit to being a lifelong learner. Although I graduated from university over 20 years ago, the rise of data and AI reminds me to sharpen my skills in order to stay relevant. Keep on learning!
Collaborate with others. Finance and accounting touch every part of the business. Gone are the days where we can stay in our offices, crank out reports and go home. Finance needs to be a strategic partner to the business, including HR, engineering and beyond.
Embrace technology and automation. AI is here to stay. It will impact many finance and accounting functions. I am happy to be working with a CEO who brings an intellectual curiosity to AI and is ready to dive into it.
AI is a significant resource for finance teams. It will help us forecast and plan better and do it faster, and enable us to automate manual processes. It may also help with regulatory and compliance functions.
AI will not only grow ServiceRocket’s revenue, I believe it will help uplevel Rocketeers as well.
"That is truly exciting."
ServiceRocket's leaders are Servant Leaders. They act with humility and enable Rocketeers to do the best work of their life. That mission is supported by a generous roster of global benefits, including an allowance that fosters learning for all. Join us.
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