In 2008, Karrie Southall and a group of 14 co-workers from Wachovia Securities decided not to move to St. Louis after their firm merged with another. Instead, they opened RiverFront Investment Group, which serves financial advisors and their clients. Since then, she has helped to shape RiverFront’s culture and its commitment to supporting more women in the financial services world.
The company has grown to 47 employees, and in Southall’s role as chief operating officer, she is passionate about maintaining a strong company culture based on the belief that leadership comes from everyone. RiverFront has a dedicated cultural leadership team that surveys associates about what is good and what needs improving in their workplace. “You don’t know unless you ask,” Southall says.
That caring radiates outside RiverFront and into the community. Every year, the firm’s charitable giving committee selects one nonprofit to support based on associates’ nominations. This year, the Richmond Community Tool Bank received the firm’s $25,000 donation and many hours of associates’ time.
Southall also wants to encourage and mentor more women in financial services. “At some conferences I attend, I’m still the only woman in the room,” she says. RiverFront has its own mentoring program for female associates, and they’re planning a Richmond conference for female financial advisors with whom they work across the country.
Southall’s greatest work lesson was a decision early in her career to take a job that paid less in exchange for personal contentment. “Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward,” she says, “and that realization of making less money at a job that made me happy was the catalyst that set everything off for me to where I am today.”
