Joe Azelby was a standout linebacker for the Harvard Crimson who later played for the Buffalo Bills and went onto a successful career in business. At Harvard, Joe was a three-year letter winner (1981, 1982, and 1983) and a member of two Ivy League Championship teams, including the 1983 team, which he led as captain. Known as a “quick study” by his coaches and a “player’s captain” by his teammates, Joe was a highly productive player, leading the Crimson in tackles and assists in his three years as a starter. Joe’s play earned him numerous accolades throughout his collegiate career, including First Team All-Ivy in 1982 and 1983, First Team All-ECAC in 1982 and 1983, Associated Press I-AA All-America Honorable Mention in 1983, Second Team All-Ivy in 1981, and Second Team All-New England in 1981. In his senior season, Joe won the Bulger Lowe Award, given annually to the best defensive player in New England. For the Bills, who drafted Joe after he graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he played linebacker and special teams. Joe was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2002.

From 1986 to 1998, Joe had various trading and portfolio management roles in JP Morgan Asset Management’s Fixed Income Group. There, he led the team’s public and private mortgage and asset-backed securities investment activities. In 1991, he earned an MBA in finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Joe was the CEO of JP Morgan's Global Real Assets Group from 1998 to 2017, where he led a team of 500 investment professionals in 20 cities around the world managing $95 billion in assets. The group invested in real estate, infrastructure, and maritime assets across the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Brazil on behalf of large, sophisticated institutions. Joe designed and executed the transformation of JP Morgan’s U.S. real estate business into a multi-dimensional global real assets investment platform. Most recently, Joe was a Senior Partner and Global Head of Real Assets for Apollo Global Management. Joe was the creator and co-author of "The Realization" concept and research paper, which accurately predicted and explained the growth in real asset allocations that has occurred over the last five years.

Joe has a longstanding interest in developing young professionals. With his brother Bob, he co-authored Kiss Your BUT Good-Bye (Harpers Business, 2013), a guidebook to identifying and resolving career obstacles. Joe serves on the board of Getting Out and Staying Out, a nonprofit that helps young men in the NYC criminal justice system transition back to being productive members of society.

Joe lives in Cresskill, New Jersey, with his wife Janet, with whom he has three grown daughters.