Joy Basu

Joy Basu serves as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, overseeing Economics and Regional Affairs across Sub-Saharan Africa. DAS Basu’s portfolio includes commercial diplomacy, trade and investment, strategic competition, food security, climate, energy, democracy, human rights, and multilateral matters. Immediately prior to this appointment, Ms. Basu served at the United States Department of Justice as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General.

Before joining the Biden Administration, Joy worked in business at the nexus of investment, innovation, and development. As the Chief of Staff at a global alternatives investment firm, she championed opportunities to facilitate investment in emerging and frontier markets; she built a groundbreaking multibillion-dollar impact investment platform and served as its global lead for food and agriculture. Ms. Basu started her career as a management consultant; in addition to supporting multinational companies on corporate strategy, she also served international nonprofits investing in economic growth. Joy has helped manage major multi-stakeholder alliances for agricultural development and served as a senior advisor to major public, private, and civil society development institutions, as well as to executives of startup, growth-stage, and established food businesses.

Joy earned her JD and MBA from Stanford University with a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation. At Stanford Law, she served as President of the Women of Stanford Law and a leader of the Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP). Born and raised in Illinois, Joy strives daily to be an active citizen with strong Midwestern roots.