Justin Nelson, a managing director at JP Morgan Private Bank, points to outside partnerships as a critical piece of any employer’s neurodiversity hiring strategy. Nelson leads the Asset Management and Financial Principals Coverage Team in Connecticut, overseeing more than fifteen billion dollars in client assets, and he has spent time working directly with organizations built specifically to support neurodiverse job seekers. He often encourages peers at other firms to explore similar partnerships before building programs internally.

How Broad Futures Supports Employers

One organization Nelson highlights is Broad Futures, a charity focused on connecting neurodiverse candidates with employers willing to hire them. According to Justin Nelson JP Morgan, the group works directly with companies to help them get educated on neurodiversity and to run structured programs that help those employers select the right candidates for open roles. He describes the relationship as a bridge between a company’s good intentions and the practical steps needed to act on them.

Nelson also cites Adelphi University’s Bridges Program, which supports high functioning students on the autism spectrum as they prepare for careers, as another resource firms in financial services can tap into. Justin Nelson sees these partnerships as a practical shortcut for companies that want to hire neurodiverse talent but lack internal expertise to build a program from scratch. Working with established groups, he notes, avoids costly trial and error.

For JP Morgan and similar institutions, Nelson’s message is that organizations like Broad Futures remove much of the guesswork from neurodiversity hiring, letting companies focus resources on integrating new employees rather than reinventing recruitment from the ground up. That, he says, is often the difference between a program that lasts and one that quietly fades. Nelson has encouraged JP Morgan colleagues to reach out to similar organizations in their own regions rather than waiting for a formal companywide initiative. He views these partnerships as a long term investment rather than a short term hiring fix. See related link for more information.

Learn more about Justin Nelson JP Morgan on https://tfn.tufts.edu/blog/news/2011/10/01/member-spotlight-justin-nelson-a98-opening-doors-to-students-at-jp-morgan/