Jennifer’s Inspiring Story
An Advocate for Women in Private Credit
Jennifer Strickland was just 25 when she was first quoted in the Wall Street Journal. Ms. Strickland was an up-and-coming editor/analyst at Morningstar (she was employee #12 at the firm), and she had parlayed her University of Chicago statistics degree into a knack for translating complex investment products into plain language. Her hallmark: Running straight toward challenges that others would have run away from, while pushing herself to grow intellectually as quickly as possible.
The Morningstar job was a case in point. She jumped at the opportunity offered by the investment research startup to lead and manage a team at the age of 21. She then took on the challenge to become an analyst on variable annuities/life, a complex investment product that others may have shied away from. Once in the role, her intellectual acumen and ability to translate complex mathematical formulae and investment results into everyday language propelled Ms. Strickland to become a sought-after speaker; she was quoted several more times in the WSJ during those years.
It was rare at that time for a woman to rise so quickly in the investing world, and Ms. Strickland returned to the University of Chicago to pursue her MBA. There, she met Shawn Yang, a fellow student at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now named Booth School of Business), who became a suitor. They were married in 1997 after graduating with their MBAs and went halfway around the globe to work in Hong Kong.
While in Hong Kong, a city recently handed over by the British authorities to Chinese rule, Ms. Strickland worked in Citibank Private Bank as a product manager, developing and marketing structured alternative investment products focusing on high-net-worth clients in the Asia Pacific markets. In 2000, she followed her husband's career move back to the US. Shortly thereafter, she joined HBK Investments, a Dallas-based multi-strategy hedge fund. After serving as Director of Investor Relations and Marketing through a full market cycle that culminated in the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, Ms. Strickland proved her mettle as a steadfast and trustworthy communicator of sophisticated investment strategies in investment environments both favorable and tumultuous. In 2010, she joined BlueMountain Capital Management, a pioneering firm in credit-default swaps, as Managing Director and Co-Head of Business Development. In 2012, she was recruited to PIMCO to be responsible for marketing PIMCO's Alternative Investment products in the US and Canada.
During these mid/senior career years, Ms. Strickland became known in the industry as a mentor to the generation of women just behind her, many of whom subsequently rose to senior positions in the investment industry.
In 2020, Ms. Strickland joined Pretium Partners, an investment firm, as Senior Managing Director and Head of the Business Development Team. She was responsible for driving fundraising efforts, client strategy, and management of the Business Development Team. Ms. Strickland was a member of Pretium's Executive and ESG Committees and a founding member of Women in Private Credit (WPC), a network of senior women dedicated to advancing private credit and empowering its female leaders.
"It was the University of Chicago that introduced me to the way to think and use math in addition to storytelling," she said in a FiftyFaces podcast recorded in May 2025. "Some of the qualities that made me who I am are being able to weave together mathematical answers, having a comfort with technology, and combining that with how to explain a story, like why someone should care about these numbers or care about these results."
Her legacy
Ms. Strickland, who had cancer and died Aug. 7, 2025, at age 56, listened to what people were saying about her and realized that she helped make a difference in people's careers with the mentoring and counseling she provided throughout the years.
When cancer resurfaced after a remission of over 2 years, she accepted that she had a limited time left. She was inspired by the touching stories told by the associates who worked under her over the years and went on to become senior leaders at various investment firms. Their stories about how she mentored them and shared wisdom along their career paths that helped them navigate difficult situations and pursue successes.
She accepted the calling and, through initial funding provided by her family charitable trust, created the Jennifer T. Strickland Foundation, with a mission to provide mentorship and career development resources to women in private credit. The first initiative of her foundation was to sponsor the annual Strickland Fellowship, a joint effort with Women in Private Credit (WPC), to support the growth of WPC and the next generation of private credit talent through personalized mentorship, education, and networking with the industry's top investors and business leaders.