Martin King shares his journey and reflects on his career.

Martin King joined New York Life in 2006 after being referred by an employee and has since held various positions, all with increasing responsibilities, in NYL Investors. He currently holds two crucial roles in the business: head of the Investment Grade Credit Team, where he oversees $70 billion of investment grade fixed income assets; and, as of April 2021, head of Impact Investments. Within Impact Investments, he is responsible for developing and overseeing New York Life’s long-term impact investing strategy, allowing us to have a better focus on the way we approach and pursuit broad and inclusive outcomes.

Below, King shares his journey, passion, advice, and perspectives as he reflects on his career.

When an opportunity presented itself at New York Life, I was sold by the people. I met five or six employees during my interview process, and the culture was both professional and inclusive–if I needed to work 10-plus hours a day, these were people I wanted to be around. That was the attraction for me. People are drawn to an organization that puts people first, and at  New York Life,  everything we do is with our clients and policy owners In mind.. If those things matter to you, then you’re attracted to New York Life, where values matter.

Another thing that attracted me was the job itself. My job provides an extensive view of the world, and that is one thing I love about it. I have a pretty broad perspective on the investment universe and the factors that impact our economy.

[Chief Investment Officer] Tony Malloy gave me a call around a year ago inviting me to a conversation on the role we can play in addressing  some of the societal ills that have been present for a long time. That conversation turned into a working group with 10-15 of my colleagues, all with a passion for what we were talking about and looking to accomplish. We felt this work personally and we turned that personal energy into professional responsibility.

Impact investing is crucial to the communities we serve. We can help  change life circumstances if we are deliberate about what we do as a company, which led us to the recent announcement of our $1B impact investment initiative, that seeks to address the racial wealth gap by investing in underserved and undercapitalized communities.

Personally, success for me in this role will be opening New York Life to perspectives that we did not have before. We deploy billions of dollars in capital per year—this new initiative and others helps us continue to think about the work we do and the impact it can have on our neighborhoods, our communities, our cities, and our governments.

We have consistently put our employees, agents, and clients at the core of all that we do. But today, we’re much more explicit in saying here’s what we care about, and what’s helpful about being expressive is that people understand where we stand as a company. The way we’re talking about inclusion today is very helpful for those of us who are of diverse backgrounds.

Everyone at New York Life has a role to play in our diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sometimes we think it is all up to the management and senior leadership, but it’s not. It is on all of us to define the company, what we care about, how our fellow colleagues feel about the work they do, and the cultural environment that we create. If we care about who we are as a company, then we should be thoughtful in how we execute our jobs and interact with each other. We should all recognize that how we treat each other is just as important as the work we do.