Her Story
About Kellie
I've been in the banking field for just two weeks now, but before that I spent about 7 years in the mortgage industry. My previous position was Director of Corporate Accounting at a smaller mortgage company, where I went to help my previous boss clean some stuff up and get some processes in place. Before that, I was with Loan Depot as Director of Accounts Payable. In my current role as Vice President of AP and Travel and Expenses, I oversee the accounts payable team as well as the travel and expense team, and we're doing a full implementation of Workday Financial. My most notable professional achievement was the Workday Financial Implementation at Loan Depot - I really thrived with that, was in charge of a few different modules, and that's where I really stood out and went from actually a manager to a director within Loan Depot. What makes my approach unique is my educational background - I have a master's in education, which means nothing to accounting on the surface, but I tie it into my work by training a lot of the people I work with and putting different training manuals together. Having that background and the patience for training, which a lot of people do not have, has really helped me lead people through processes and help my teams flourish.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kellie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to hard work and dedication, probably a little too much dedication sometimes. I'm just a really driven person, to be quite honest. I like to give my all to everything that I'm working on, no matter what it is. I think it's important to always keep who you are as a person before anything, doing right from wrong versus following a crowd, which is very normalized these days. I believe you just need to be true to yourself and to your family that you hold tight, and that's kind of my dedication to them as well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received was probably from one of my CAOs at Loan Depot. There were some trying times, and she was always real poised, real like really always had her stuff together, and she just said you have to really have some thick skin sometimes. I think throughout my career, that's something that I have done very well, is to have some thick skin when it comes to people coming at you, maybe in a not-so-polite manner. You really have to make sure that you're customer service, but also keeping your cool at the same time.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Keep going. A lot of times, the banking industry and the mortgage industry is male-dominated, and you just have to keep going, and you have to grow that thick skin. You need to center yourself a little bit and just decide what you want to do as a person, and just keep striving for your goals. Don't let the challenges of working in a male-dominated field stop you from pursuing what you want to achieve.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenge is going to be doing Workday on top of everything else on my plate, and learning a whole new position. I've been there 2 weeks, and I've already been headfirst into Workday, as well as learning everything that my team does. Starting something new is always a challenge, just kind of diving in and trying to find the best process and procedure that we can do to maybe fix some of the pain points that are coming up. But it's also the most exciting part, in my opinion. I think it's fun to try different things out, and to really allow the team to flourish with that as well. It goes back to the teaching moments - those are the important things in life, is to make sure that people grow underneath you as well.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is most important to me. I believe in always keeping who you are as a person before anything, doing right from wrong versus following a crowd, which is very normalized these days. I think that you just need to be true to yourself and to your family that you hold tight, and that's kind of my dedication to them as well. It's about maintaining your principles and not compromising who you are, regardless of external pressures.
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