Ep 18: The Making Of “The Girl Banker”
OUR GUEST
Natalie Bartholomew
Chief Administrative Officer, Grand Savings Bank
Women In Banking Advocate, TheGirlBanker.com
Not everyone thinks “I’m going to be a banker when I grow up.” Natalie Bartholomew is the exception. At a young age, she knew she wanted to be in banking, but she didn’t know that career would unlock opportunities to connect and empower bankers across the country.
Building a brand, new operational departments, and new technology within a $500M+ asset community bank in northwest Arkansas isn’t easy. But, doing all of that while being a mother to two boys and building a nationally-recognized women’s empowerment platform (The Girl Banker), it goes without saying that banking has given Natalie as much back as she has poured into the industry.
Our latest podcast explores Natalie’s role at Grand Savings Bank and how The Girl Banker platform has evolved so quickly in the last few years.
More About Natalie
Natalie Bartholomew is a career banker with experience in a variety of areas of banking including lending, deposit operations, culture building and marketing. She currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Grand Savings Bank, a community bank in Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma.
Natalie has a passion for philanthropy and sits on various boards and committees that serve the Northwest Arkansas region. She was recognized as the 2015 Young Woman of the Year by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce for the NWA Business Women’s Conference and was a member of the 2015 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 and their 2018 Women In Business list as well as the 2019 Arkansas Business Forty Under 40 class. She received both her bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Arkansas and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking in Boulder, Colorado. Natalie is also a past member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Arkansas Bankers Association.
She launched the Girl Banker blog in November of 2017 in hopes of creating a voice for women in banking and working moms. In addition to advocacy for women in banking, Natalie has a passion for educating young women about the banking industry and highlighting those who started their career at a young age. The Girl Banker has been featured in American Banker, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, Bank Director Magazine, Independent Banker Magazine, the ABA Bank Marketing Newsletter, Harland Clarke and EPCOR newsletters, and a variety of financial industry newsletters since it’s launch. Natalie also speaks at a variety of banking conferences and schools all over the country and is excited to roll out the Girl Banker Podcast in conjunction with Talk Business & Politics and the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal in the Fall of 2019.
Her absolute greatest accomplishments are being mom to sons, Brody and Witten, and wife to Colt. Natalie and her family are avid Arkansas Razorback and Dallas Cowboys fans.
