We recently had the chance to connect with Roy Ju and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Roy, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
August 2025 was a monumental month for me, as I served as best man in my twin brother’s wedding; in addition, I celebrated the 10-year anniversary for becoming the world’s youngest fully credentialed actuary. I’m blessed to admit that the former was a more significant memory to me, as I am very close to him and his wife—it took place at a beautiful venue with breathtaking views and perfect weather. The latter was a humble reminder of a proud moment that largely shaped my career, as the actuarial profession was pivotal to my early success and foundation in Corporate America. Quite frankly, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I have held this world record for ten years, now.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am currently working as a consultant, supporting firms in functional areas such as finance, strategy, operations, risk, and mergers & acquisitions. Previously, I spent several years as a corporate executive throughout financial services, primarily in actuarial and risk domains. I made a career pivot at the beginning of 2025 to move away from Corporate America and focus my attention on smaller firms with lofty growth aspirations. I’ve given counsel to several small and medium-sized firms, in addition to providing consulting services to management consulting firms (e.g. Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group).
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
My father was instrumental in my development: his unwavering confidence in my potential was formative to building my own confidence. Growing up, I had always scored well on academic exams; early in my career, I had always been told that I was intelligent and competent. Borrowing confidence from my father at an early age, I recognized that I could find success in anything that I put my mind to. Consequently, I maintained confidence in adapting and developing different skillsets and mentalities to succeed in various new roles and unique environments. This reinforced my courage to take the necessary risks in my career and various other business endeavors and progress with decisive confidence. My father’s mentorship throughout my childhood years helped me to evolve into the confident and courageous individual that I am, today.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would give my younger self the advice to not sweat the small stuff. Growing up, everyone wants to win and succeed, and there can only be a small subset of winners. I felt pressure to try to be the best in everything I participated in (e.g. academics, sports, and music). Looking back, acing a test or winning a competition as a child is trivial in the grand scheme of life, and it certainly doesn’t dictate where you’ll be several years from then. It is the accumulation of thousands of life circumstances that may impact key life events and decisions that may partially influence where you end up in life—with the noise and interference of thousands of other uncontrollable external factors. You can’t engineer your way to definite success, and there is a lot of merit to trying your best, maintaining an optimistic attitude, and simply trusting the process. I wish that I would have been kinder to myself when I didn’t win or didn’t get the perfect test score, as a child, as each of those disappointments were so insignificant in the long run. I hope that other highly-ambitious kids are guided to be kinder to themselves in the face of defeat or disappointment. After all, maintaining confidence and resilience in the face of defeat can be more developmental than winning.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My close friends know that my priorities in life are guided by my desire to put my family, friends, and community at the forefront. Much of my passion for consulting stems from my desire to play to my strengths and expertise developed in industry to do good for those within my network. I’m privileged to admit that many of my consulting arrangements and past & current board involvements pertain to companies that are ran by individuals who are my friends or have some relationship to friends of mine. Trust is conducive to maximizing the benefit of consulting, and the opportunity to benefit the lives of folks within my sphere of interaction is a motivating factor that aligns with my core.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I would expect most of the world to know me by my credentials, career titles, or observable business involvements. Those details represent the most visible facets of my life and largely reflect many years of career and academic discipline. The “what” and “how” may make sense as you track the sequence, but the “why” is not commonly understood. My parents came to the United States as lower-class immigrants from Asia. Learning English as a second language was a barrier for them to flourish in their own life and career goals, but I’m very proud to have seen them live and manifest their version of the American Dream. Their goal for me and my brother was to surpass them in our own careers, and to give back to friends and family in a similar way that they did. They helped to sponsor and host several Asian students to study in the United States, in giving these students similar academic opportunities that they felt privileged to have when they obtained their PhDs in the U.S. My parents’ story is my motivation to live a fulfilled life that serves others and enables superior opportunities and success for as many individuals that I can support and impact.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @roy__ju
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/royju
Image Credits
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