A former senior executive at the investment firm co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy says she was fired after raising concerns about alleged sexual harassment inside the company — and three years later, Ramaswamy remains a defendant in her federal lawsuit.
Joyce Rosely, Strive Asset Management’s former executive vice president and co-head of institutional sales and distribution, alleges she warned company leaders in early 2023 that then-Chief Operating Officer Ben Pham was aggressively pursuing a newly hired subordinate.
Rosely says she was told to keep watching the situation, was rebuffed when she raised the concern with other senior leaders and was fired about two months later.
The allegation is contained in the same lawsuit that TiffinOhio.net examined earlier this month, after a federal judge refused to dismiss separate whistleblower claims against Ramaswamy alleging he pressured employees to violate securities laws and participated in retaliating against Rosely after she objected.
The sexual harassment allegation itself is directed at Pham, not Ramaswamy. Rosely does not accuse Ramaswamy of sexually harassing anyone.
But her court filings describe the harassment complaint as one of two major disputes she says erupted between her and Strive leadership in the months before the company terminated her.
Rosely says she warned Strive about executive’s conduct
Strive hired Rosely in August 2022.
By January 2023, according to the lawsuit, fellow Strive executive Jeff Nye told Rosely that a newly hired female employee had disclosed that Pham was romantically pursuing her in an “aggressive manner.”
Rosely said she had traveled with Pham and the employee and personally witnessed interactions between them that she found “very uncomfortable to observe.”
She took the concern to Laura Brady, Strive’s head of people strategy.
According to Rosely, Brady instructed her to “keep an eye on them and report back.”
Rosely alleges, however, that neither Brady nor anyone else acting for Strive did anything to stop what her complaint characterized as Pham “pressuring a newly-hired subordinate into a sexual relationship.”
She then confronted Pham herself, asking why the subordinate was repeatedly traveling with him unnecessarily, according to the complaint.
Pham allegedly told her to mind her own business.
Rosely also raised the situation with Strive co-founder Anson Frericks.
According to her filing, Frericks told her it was “none of his business.”
Two months later, Strive fired her
On March 21, 2023, Frericks and Brady terminated Rosely.
Rosely alleges she received no prior notice or warning and was told Strive was “reorganizing” and there was “no longer a position” for her.
Three other senior employees — Nye, John Phillips and J.P. Towey — were terminated the same day.
Rosely later sued Strive, Frericks and Ramaswamy, arguing in part that her firing constituted retaliation for raising the harassment concern.
Her lawsuit also alleges something separate and potentially more consequential for Ramaswamy personally: that Ramaswamy and Frericks repeatedly pressured her to violate securities laws and that she and Nye were fired after objecting.
Those allegations became the focus of a lengthy federal court battle over whether the case could proceed.
Ramaswamy discussed the firings the next day, lawsuit says
Although Ramaswamy announced in February 2023 that he was stepping away from Strive to run for president, Rosely alleges he remained involved with the company.
The day after the firings, according to her complaint, Ramaswamy appeared at Strive’s Dublin, Ohio, headquarters and discussed the terminations with employees.
“We had to do this,” Rosely alleges Ramaswamy told them.
Rosely has pointed to that statement as part of her allegation that Ramaswamy participated in the decision to terminate her.
Ramaswamy’s attorneys have disputed that conclusion, arguing that Rosely failed to establish that he was personally involved in firing her.
But on Aug. 25, U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals refused to dismiss Rosely’s separate whistleblower claim against Ramaswamy.
The judge pointed to allegations that Ramaswamy supervised Rosely, directed her to engage in conduct she believed violated securities laws, received her objections and participated in the decision to fire her.
“Taking her allegations as true, Plaintiff sufficiently states a CEPA claim against Ramaswamy,” Neals wrote.
The decision came at the motion-to-dismiss stage, when courts generally accept well-pleaded factual allegations as true for purposes of determining whether a claim may proceed. It was not a finding that Rosely’s allegations were proven.
Judge dismissed harassment-retaliation claim — but left door open
Rosely did not prevail on every part of her lawsuit.
Neals dismissed three claims on Aug. 25, including Rosely’s claim under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination alleging she was retaliated against for reporting the alleged harassment.
The court found that Rosely had not alleged enough facts connecting that particular complaint to her firing.
A federal magistrate judge had previously concluded that Rosely relied largely on the roughly two-month period between reporting the alleged conduct and being terminated, without enough additional factual allegations to establish causation.
Neals dismissed that claim without prejudice, meaning Rosely was permitted to amend it rather than permanently barred from pursuing the theory.
The judge also dismissed her age-discrimination claim and a related individual-liability claim without prejudice.
Two other counts survived: Rosely’s whistleblower-retaliation claim against Strive under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act and the count seeking to hold Ramaswamy and Frericks individually liable for that alleged retaliation.
Those surviving claims center primarily on the securities-law allegations rather than the harassment complaint.
Executive accused by Rosely is now Strive’s CFO and a director
Pham, the executive at the center of Rosely’s harassment allegations, remained with Strive.
Federal securities filings show Pham was Strive’s first executive officer and employee, became chief operating officer in November 2022 and was promoted to chief financial officer in July 2024.
He joined Strive’s board of directors in September 2025 and remains identified in 2026 SEC filings as both the company’s chief financial officer and a director.
Before joining Strive, Pham worked at Ramaswamy’s biotechnology company Roivant Sciences and served as Ramaswamy’s chief of staff, according to Strive’s SEC disclosures.
Ramaswamy also continues to have a substantial financial connection to the company he co-founded.
In an Aug. 26 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ramaswamy reported beneficial ownership of approximately 5.69 million Strive shares, representing 6.6% of the class covered by the filing.
Strive said Rosely underperformed
When Rosely’s allegations first became national news in 2023, Ramaswamy and Strive rejected her account.
Attorneys for Ramaswamy attacked the lawsuit as containing “bare accusations” without sufficient direct or circumstantial evidence and sought to have the case dismissed or moved from New Jersey to Ohio.
Strive told the Daily Mail at the time that Rosely’s allegations reflected a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the company’s business practices by an employee who “underperformed in her role.”
The company said it would “vigorously defend itself in court.”
Ramaswamy, Strive and Frericks have continued to dispute Rosely’s account in federal court, portraying the March 2023 terminations as a legitimate company reorganization rather than retaliation.
Neals last month rejected their effort to move the lawsuit to Ohio and rejected their attempt to dismiss its central whistleblower claims.
The result leaves an unusual split as the litigation moves forward.
The claim specifically alleging Rosely was fired for reporting the alleged sexual harassment was dismissed without prejudice and can be amended.
But the broader lawsuit remains alive.
And Ramaswamy, now the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, remains personally in a federal case brought by a former executive who says Strive leaders ignored her warning about alleged sexual harassment, pressured her to cross securities-law lines and fired her after she objected.
