Edward Jones Role Model Profile

Roberts-Pitts Helps Blaze Trail for Black Female Brokers

An eight-year veteran of Edward Jones, Emily Roberts-Pitts worked in the financial-services industry for 11 years prior to joining the firm. Her first six years in the field, she worked in operations, looking for an opportunity to become a broker. "Not many women, and especially not many black women, were breaking into the brokerage industry in the "80s," she said. In 1984, she began working as a broker for a national firm and in 1992 joined another firm, leaving three years later due to ethical differences. Although she knew of Edward Jones, she got a closer glimpse at a minority career fair when she met one of the firm's partners.

Roberts-Pitts was hired a short time later to work as an investment representative in Atlanta and has recruited more than half a dozen others to the firm. She became a limited partner with Edward Jones in 2000 and in 2002 earned certification as a financial planner.

"What Edward Jones has figured out that many other firms haven't is that people do business with people," Roberts-Pitts said. "Having only one investment representative in an office is an expensive and unique business model, but it embodies the firm's philosophy of convenience and personable service to individual investors." The firm currently operates more than 9,000 offices in the United States and, through its affiliates, in Canada and the United Kingdom and plans to expand to 25,000 within the next 10 years.

Roberts-Pitts adds, "As a black woman, I've been given the opportunity at Edward Jones to maximize my potential and fulfill my personal goal to help others without limitations."

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