What kind of career did you lead before joining Steele? I spent my career before Steele on the customer service side of an employee benefits broker. Afterward, I spent two years in graduate school prior to accepting my current role at Steele.
When and how did you get involved with Steele? Before joining Steele I was part of the team that implemented Steele’s services for our first mutual customer. I had the opportunity to work closely with the Steele team as partners and view Steele from the outside. As I went back to graduate school full-time, Wes and I stayed in touch and the timing worked for me to join Steele after graduation.
How would you describe your role in one sentence? To seamlessly integrate our five departments so we can effectively implement the Steele Way for our customers.
How has the role evolved? Our team is currently 60% larger (!!!) than when I started in 2020, and the things the company needed 2 years ago are different than they are today. I was very much “in the weeds” when I started but can feel a natural transition to a more strategic role as our organization develops.
If you wrote a book about your career so far, what would you title it? Why?
“Exactly Where I’m Supposed To Be”
I’ve been extremely fortunate so far in my career with the opportunities I’ve been given, and I can’t thank the individuals who are responsible for those opportunities enough. But maybe more importantly, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities I wasn’t given. At numerous points throughout my life, I’ve been guided to exactly where I need to be at that point in time. While I didn’t realize it in the moment, it’s hard to imagine life on the path that I thought I wanted.
If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Be prepared for in-depth analysis. I enjoy taking a proposal, process, or issue and analyzing it from multiple angles to make sure we can roll out a successful solution.
What celebrity would you like to meet for a cup of coffee? Mark Cuban. His business mind is fascinating to me, especially his entrepreneurial instincts. Plus, we share a love of IU athletics. So, maybe instead of a cup of coffee, we could get dinner and drinks at Nick’s on Kirkwood before heading to a big game in Bloomington.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be? I’d have super speed, because I could finally be one of the most athletic people in the room. I loved playing sports as a kid, and was decent at most I played, but never was the fastest, tallest, or strongest player on the field. It would be nice to flip the script on at least one of those aspects!