Meet Angie Ratliff, a sustaining member of The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) and 2021 recipient of Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award. In May, Angie was awarded American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking: Next award for her work as the global head of disputes and prepaid operations for U.S. Bank. In addition to her banking career, Angie is also a devoted mom and a travel enthusiast.
Angie’s Early Life
I grew up in Tampa, FL. and like all Floridians, I love anything to do with the water. My family had a sailboat and we used to spend our weekends out doing races on the bay. When I was older, I joined my dad on his annual race from Clearwater to Key West. I even tagged along for a few weeks when he sailed around the world from 2014 to 2015. My mom was a computer programmer (back then it was rare for women to be in that profession) and she raised me with a very logical mindset. I remember learning how to get ready for kindergarten. We made a flow chart with a flowchart stencil because this was way before Visio! Conversely, my dad was your typical sales guy and ended up starting his own company when I was in middle school. So, I had both ends of the spectrum at home growing up, which I think helped to balance me out.
I have a younger sister and I have a typical first born, type A personality. When I graduated from high school, I went to Florida State University. Originally, I planned to become a computer programmer like my mom, but ended up switching to a math major. Close to graduation, I realized not many jobs actually look for math majors. I ended up getting a job with Bank of America and they moved me to Charlotte. It was the first time I lived outside of Florida. I sold my red mustang convertible and got an SUV to brace for the winters. Ha!
I joined the JLC shortly after moving to Charlotte. It was a great way to meet people, since I moved here without knowing a soul. I traveled a lot for my job and moved around, going back to Tampa for a few years, then spending four years in London. I was involved in both Junior League chapters as I moved around.
I’ve been back in Charlotte since 2014 and now have three children: Imogen (almost 6), Poppy (3), and Rory (1 month).
“My philosophy with Junior League is similar to work: I go where I’m needed.”
Making an Impact with the Junior League
Being able to transfer my membership as I moved across the globe was great, especially in London. The Junior League is a great little community primarily of ex-pats in a huge city. It made the transition so much easier.
The Junior League is also a great and safe place to learn and practice new skills. When I was President-Elect in London, I managed two staff members. I’d never done that before! I learned how to go through the hiring process, give performance reviews, provide meaningful feedback and more. When I wanted to make the move to a team manager at work, I was able to cite this valuable experience I gained with the Junior League.
While I’m a sustainer now, I’ve had a number of positions in the Junior Leagues of Charlotte, Tampa and London. My philosophy with Junior League is similar to work: I go where I’m needed. This led me to do various things such as social committee, technology (running the website and backend systems), new member/transfer committee, president-elect, and more.
My favorite placement during my time in the League has been the New Member Development Committee in London. Your first year in the League is critical to setting a good foundation and ensuring a positive experience. It’s rewarding to see women go through the program and find their placements and ultimately, have meaningful experiences. Transfers also go through a similar program as new members, so it was great to pay back my experiences I got as a transfer.
This year’s JLC theme calls us to be #JLChangeAgents. I feel I am one because if I see something wrong, I’m compelled to step in and help, even if I’m not “supposed”’ to. I do this both personally and professionally. My husband jokes that I can’t join something without eventually running it.
“I feel motivated to work hard because I know I can contribute and make something better.”
Her Career & Commitment to Working Hard
It’s a huge honor to be recognized by American Banker as the Most Powerful Woman in Banking. It would be an honor in any year but especially so in 2020, with the world drastically changing so rapidly and many people doing amazing things.
I feel motivated to work hard because I know I can contribute and make something better. It sounds cheesy, but I know work is better because I came in that day. I really do feel a huge sense of accomplishment because I know WHY I am doing something. This is also something I try to instill in my team. No one wants a leader who barks orders and expects you to do something just because they say so. To truly be motivated, you need to understand why you are doing something.
My favorite thing about my career path is that I’ve done so many things and had twists and turns. I’ve never had a five year plan or even a one year plan. I just do my best at whatever is in front of me and wait for the next problem to develop so I can pivot and go fix that. I never would have imagined I’d be running a global operations team of nearly 1,000 people now and it would have scared me if you told me that 10 years ago. Same thing with prior roles. I’d say you were crazy if you said I was going to be in anti-money laundering compliance ensuring bad guys don’t take advantage of our financial system. Yet, I did that and still actually teach some courses on it too.
A piece of advice that I would like to pass down to women of younger generations is to be vocal about what you want. You are your own best advocate for yourself. Other people don’t know what you want unless you tell them. In my mid 20s, an internal recruiter asked me about relocating for my next assignment. I made a joke and said he’d have to entice me with a location overseas. Sure enough, there were overseas opportunities that I then learned about and ended up working in London for four years. I was engaged at the time and my now husband and I had always talked about living overseas since we both studied abroad in college. We just had no idea it would be right after we got married instead of when we retired. This was a lightbulb moment for me and I’ve been vocal about things I’m interested in since then. As my favorite quote from Wayne Gretzy says, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
“You are your own best advocate for yourself.”
Fun Facts About Angie
One thing people would be surprised to know about me is that my guilty pleasure is trash TV. One of my favorite shows is “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant”.
As a mother to three young kids, right now my favorite hobby is napping. My superpower is I can fall asleep before the plane takes off when we are traveling. I also love reading and snuggling with my babies. Bonus points when all things collide, which doesn’t happen often, but today I got to take a snuggly nap with my three-year-old on vacation. I woke up before she did and laid in the dark and read.
My favorite childhood memory was when my mom mapped out how to see almost all the national parks in five summers. We rented one of those big conversion vans and would drive from Florida all over the U.S. (primarily out west). One of the coolest places we went was rafting the Grand Canyon. We hiked down with just a backpack, picked up a boat and a guide and rafted for more than a week until we came out of the canyon. I have always loved travel, probably in part because my parents took us on such fun family vacations growing up.
