Each year, the Corridor Business Journal shines a spotlight on young professionals who have made a meaningful impact on the region early in their careers.
This year, we are proud to introduce you to the 19th class of Forty Under 40 honorees. In this post, you’ll find the four financial experts being honored.
Mary Ann Allan
Senior Director, Financial Operations | University of Iowa Health Care
Age: 39
Family: Husband, James; sons, Jonathan and Will; daughters, Nora and Olivia
Residence: Iowa City, Iowa
Hometown: Pocahontas, Iowa
Education: Master of Science in Accounting, Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting
Best advice you ever received? The most valuable advice I received wasn’t in words, but instead it was learned through witnessing my dad’s dedication and commitment to his career and family and my mom’s constant support and love. They showed me, and all of my siblings, that with hard work, faith, and love, anything is possible.
What would most people be surprised to learn about you? I spent almost three months living in the hospital and working from my hospital room when pregnant with our youngest daughter. I got to witness, first-hand, the awesome care provided at UIHC to me and our daughter, who is still just as feisty and strong as she enters kindergarten as she was when she was born!
What’s the biggest issue facing the Corridor, and why? Workforce! Recruiting and retaining talented individuals to the Corridor for critical roles, especially in health care, is so important.
If you had $1 million to give, what causes would you support? I’d want to invest the money in our schools. My children have been blessed with the best teachers, and I would want to give back to them in any way I can.
What’s something people should know about your generation in the workplace?
We want the work we do to have a purpose and make an impact.
What do you want to accomplish by the time you are 50? I want to have raised four happy, healthy kids alongside my husband and to have continued to contribute to the success of UI Health Care so that our state has access to the high quality, world-class academic medical care available today.
Matt Bailey
Chief Risk Officer | Linn Area Credit Union
Age: 38
Residence: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Education: Upper Iowa University – Bachelor of Science
What do you consider your “big break” in your career, so far? I have had multiple opportunities, but the biggest one was the one that changed my career path from the mortgage lending area into the compliance area back in 2011. It was a new position that I had no special qualifications for, but the hiring manager – our former CEO, Jenny Lorenz – took a chance in hopes that my work ethic would make up the gaps in knowledge quick enough to make me useful!
What’s the biggest issue facing the Corridor, and why? There are so many directions I could go on this. From a professional angle, hiring and retaining qualified talent is very much a pain point that I see and hear throughout Iowa and especially in the Corridor. Keeping young Iowans and attracting from outside the state to share all we have to offer is a large issue for sure. Personally, as a parent of young kids, I see a lot of struggles with day care affordability. The number of people I know and have seen unwillingly leave the workforce because they can’t offset the cost of child care has jumped significantly in the last three to five years. This contributes to myriad problems within those households and the Corridor at large as time progresses.
If you had $1 million to give, what causes would you support? I would be overjoyed to be able to make contributions to a variety of different organizations. The ones that jump out to me right away are the Affordable Housing Network and Horizon’s Financial Wellness Center, because financial support is a very necessary safety net and one I very often see people in need of. I would also want to include HACAP, because I believe strongly in foundational work they do to keep children and families fed.
Erin Christy
Director, Wealth Management | Choreo, LLC
Age: 37
Family: Spouse, Jason; son, Owen
Residence: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hometown: Marshalltown, Iowa
Education: University of Kansas – Bachelor of Fine Arts
University of Iowa College of Law – Juris Doctor
Best advice you ever received?
“Progress over perfection.” As a recovering perfectionist, this advice was hard for me, but I’ve found that a.) your first attempt at anything won’t be perfect and b.) it’s OK to fail. In fact, it’s more than OK. You learn so much about yourself through trial and error and incremental progress. In weightlifting, you can’t find your PR (personal record) one-rep max without pushing yourself to the point of failure. I try to apply this to all facets of my life, trusting and enjoying the process rather than seeking perfection.
What would most people be surprised to learn about you? I think people from my professional/legal community are surprised to know I have a dance background, and people from my dance community are surprised to know I have a legal background.
If you had $1 million to give, what causes would you support? University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital – I have a dear friend whose son is a brain cancer survivor. The Children’s Hospital performed emergency surgery on a softball size tumor when he was less than two years old. I think about the battles fought every single day there and it’s hard to think of a more worthy cause.
What do you want to accomplish by the time you are 50? Professionally, I would like to have contributed to the growth and success of our firm by developing authentic relationships with people and helping them achieve their financial goals. In the community, I want to have nurtured the development of young people through the art of dance. Personally, I hope to have hiked a “14-er” and gone on numerous memorable adventures with my family.
Sarah Hughes
Mortgage Loan Officer | GreenState Credit Union
Age: 39
Family: Husband, Chad Hughes; daughter, Charlotte Hughes
Residence: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
What was your first job? Working in a bingo hall, helping with concessions
Best advice you ever received? To treat each position/job as an interview for your next position.
What do you consider your “big break” in your career, so far? My big break was getting in the mortgage business. Ryan Doerhmann took a chance on me, as I didn’t have the years of experience or the book of business as others had, but told him failing wasn’t an option for me. I had to learn on my own, lean on my peers as mentors and utilize my willingness to ask questions to get to the level I am at today.
What’s the biggest issue facing the Corridor, and why? Retaining and attracting young people to stay in Iowa and grow their career here. We need to continue to promote the trades and our industries and businesses that make our area and state the best place to live and raise a family. If we can’t attract talent, we can’t maintain the employers we have.
If you had $1 million to give, what causes would you support? I would support the Boys & Girls Club of the Corridor and the new building they are opening in 2024. This new building will serve roughly 300 youth a day and provide them a safe place to go after school and during the summer.
What’s something people should know about your generation in the workplace? That we are open to feedback and ask questions to have a better understanding of the problem at hand or why something is done a certain way. That we seek to understand and not to discredit or undermine authority. By doing this, we are looking for innovative ways to improve processes and grow.
The class of 2023 will be honored Oct. 19 at a ceremony sponsored by the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and Cedar Ridge Distillery at the DoubleTree by Hilton in downtown Cedar Rapids. Tickets are available until Oct. 11.
