Guest

My name is Juatise Gathings, I work for Discover Financial Services and I'm a Regional Operations Director. I do all things from leading people day to day, plus also making sure I support the company's initiatives and goals of providing superior customer service as well as being responsible to how our day to day operations is ran. This is our space so far we've renovated about 20,000 squares. One of the unique things about our project as well is we hired 100% of our leaders from the local communities. We've acknowledge that for quite some time black and brown communities have been under invested in. I grew up here in Chicago and Roseland Hunter 17th of Michigan not too far from where we're sitting today. I can remember every single day after school, being outside with other kids in the neighborhood, I was playing softball. Over the course of time as I started to enter into high school and other things you can start to see the disinvestment started to happen, right? So, that AutoZone that was on the corner of our house that was no longer there. So, you started to see things in a neighborhood shift. I never felt scared or fearful growing up in a neighborhood, but I did know that there were times in which it wasn't wise for us to play outside. And there was times when mother was more cautious, depending on what was going on in the community. So, that's what really prompted her to want to move our family to Arizona. And so my hope is that how I remember growing up and the sense of community and pride I had in Roseland it's restored, so that other children can experience that same thing. 

If you want to work as an operations director, it's important to seek out diverse opportunities throughout a company. People are so focused on upward mobility, which is still important, but it's also important not to underestimate the value of lateral and cross-functional movement. For example, if you're in compliance but you want to gain experience managing a project, then don't be afraid to move over and take a project management position. These experiences help create a well-rounded leader.

I spend a lot of time interacting with people. I ensure my leadership team has the right tools to make sure employees can realize their full potential at work. I spend time understanding customer experience, including problem-solving for any blockers. I also work on budgeting to make sure our expenses aren’t growing faster than the profit or value they’re driving for the company. I also spend time in the community. For example, I coach local nonprofits to help enhance their financial structures.

Regional Operations Director

I can't fully be myself here. I need to temper who I am in order to fit in.

Juatise Gathings

About Juatise

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