Chief Change Officer
#198 From Wall Street to Wonder: Katie Curry’s Playbook for Risk, Resilience & Reinvention — Part One
Mon, 24 Feb 2025
Katie Curry isn’t just fluent in the language of risk; she’s turned it into an art form.She has made a career out of calculated risks, pivoting from Bulgaria to Wall Street, from finance to creativity, and from spreadsheets to salsa dancing. Whether managing analysts, mentoring future leaders, or convincing her kids that Excel is “basically magic,” she’s proof that resilience is more than just a corporate buzzword—it’s a career cheat code. In this episode, Katie unpacks the art of reinvention, the balance between logic and gut instinct, and why post-traumatic growth might just be the best kind of leadership training.Key Highlights of Our Interview:From Small Town Dreams to the Big Apple“I grew up in a small town in Bulgaria during communism. My first big transformation was coming to the United States. Traveling through New York City’s financial district, I thought, ‘One day, I’d love to work here.’”Risk as a Career Compass“Risk is the theme of my career—understanding it, quantifying it, and mitigating it. But it’s also about taking risks and seizing opportunities.”Mental Toughness Through Change“Change can be nerve-wracking, but I’ve learned to approach it with excitement instead of fear. It’s like lifting weights—you don’t just maintain, you grow stronger to tackle even bigger challenges.”The Joy of Discovery“With age and experience, I’ve learned to pursue paths less mapped out, finding joy in the unknown and seeing reinvention as a journey of discovery.”_________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Katie Curry______________________--**Chief Change Officer**--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs,Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts.6 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Katie Curry and what is her background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. In today's episode, I'll be chatting with a dear friend from my Yale days, Katrina Curry, or as many know her as Katie.
Katie and I share a background in risk assessment and measurement, well-trained and developed through years of working with banks, fund houses, and insurance companies. But when it comes to her career, Katie has taken her understanding of risk to a new level. stepping out of her comfort zone with a deliberate approach.
Like me, Katie has her share of navigating and overcoming multiple rounds of reinventions through diverse cultures. In her case, from small town to Big Apple, from Bulgaria to United States. from communism to Wall Street, from New York City to Yale School of Management, from established credit rating agency to a tech innovation company in the insurance industry.
Lots of adventures, lots of failure, lots of success, and lots of resilience. Here comes my good old friend, Katie.
Chapter 2: How did Katie Curry begin her career in finance?
Happy to be here with you on the podcast. I grew up in Bulgaria. I grew up in communism and I grew up in a small town. My first big part of my kind of reinvention or transformation was coming to the United States and getting educated. I was traveling on a tour bus in New York City. I was going in downtown in the financial district and I said, you know, I would really love to work here one day.
I was very fortunate to start my first role at Citi City is a great training place. At City, what really helped me was understanding what my skill set is and what I bring to the table. So I spent a few years there. It was a great experience. I learned a lot, but I knew that I wanted to get deeper in finance. I needed to really build my skills. So I wanted to go to business school.
I thought I was going to go to school in New York City, but was admitted to Yale. And I just wanted to go for one weekend to see what I would be missing by choosing NYU over Yale. Okay. And so I went for the first time to visit the campus and the college. And I met a number of students who took me on a tour, complete strangers. They just took me on a tour.
They spent the day with me talking and talking. sharing kind of their goals and their career journeys and why they're there and why they picked SOM. I just felt so drawn to the place and I felt like, hey, this is where I want to be. So I had to make a pretty big pivot. I gave up my job. I went full time to the School of Management where you and I met many years ago.
Chapter 3: Why is risk management crucial in Katie's career?
your finance career is centered around risk so what does risk mean to you in life and in career after business school i was interested in risk risk is a theme of my career and my journey it's understanding risk it's quantifying risk it's mitigating risk it's addressing risk and it's also taking risk and taking opportunities And so I took a role at S&P Global.
I did about four different jobs there throughout my long tenure. I started as a credit analyst. I work on the most difficult transactions, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives. I wanted to delve deep and really have a good understanding of capital markets. Yeah.
But after a few years, I had an opportunity to lead a credit analyst team and I found that I really enjoyed the human aspect, the people aspect and the leadership aspect. Learning about how to lead, what makes a good leader and how not to lead. I made a lot of mistakes at that time and I learned a lot of things. Afterwards, I had an opportunity moving to operations.
pretty big pivot going from credit analysis to leading operations teams. There's a lot of talent and tools and companies in many cases overlook the impact of these teams and they overlook the process improvements and the value that these teams can So I enjoyed that team was one of my favorite teams to lead. Everyone was on there, typically on their first or second job out of college.
And there was an energy and excitement and there's such an opportunity to upskill. So that was my favorite part about that team is using new tools and upskilling and trying new things. And then I pivoted into a very different team, leading a creative team, leading the global editorial and translation team. And so that was journalists and ghostwriters and translators.
And this is a very different personality of a much more creative team. So how you lead a team of creatives is very different from how you lead the team of operators versus a team of credit analysts. And I love that evolution and learning as a leader what is needed. How can I be most helpful to this particular team?
And then I pivoted and about a year ago, I moved from kind of the largest established New York company to an amazing company, Millennial Specialty Insurance and LeaseTrack, a company that's been in growth stage. It's a part of a public company, but it's a company that's
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Chapter 4: How has Katie Curry adapted through various career changes?
still maturing and it's growing fast and it's expanding and it's a very different challenge and it's a really exciting opportunity look at the themes of my career part of it is like i said it's around risk part of it is around people and leadership and a big part of it is about learning
ah, I'd like to learn more about your learning habit these days. We'll come back to you on this. But go back to your transformation, the changes you've gone through. So in your life so far, you've moved from Bulgaria to United States, from New York City to New Haven, Connecticut, then back to New York from banking into credit rating agency, and now into insurance in a growing venture.
So throughout all of these different stages and forms of transformations, what's your approach to managing changes over time?
I don't even think about these as transformations. It's more about kind of reinvention and reinventing myself and trying to understand and figure out what can I contribute to my new situation, to my new role? What impact can I have on my team? How can I drive business, drive growth and drive improvement for my company.
I remember when you and I were at Yale, we heard Merrill Lynch's then chairman, David Komensky. He talked about when the market is calm, he actually creates challenges for his team so that they can learn and grow through these challenges. And when the market is turbulent, he just leaves them alone and lets them operate. And it gave me a lot of thinking. And at first I thought, what a jerk.
I never want to work for him. But as I matured as a leader, I came actually to understand and maybe appreciate that this reinvention and assessing and seeing the new situation and understanding how can I be most helpful? What do I have to contribute? What have I done before that I may be able to bring here and help this particular problem, this particular team, this particular company?
A key part of that is the ability to pivot, the ability to handle change and not to be, of course, there's a natural kind of nervousness and anxiety about switching roles or switching industries, but building that mental toughness so you can look at change more from the lens of excitement than from the lens of fear. even when it's forced upon you.
And sometimes change is just going to come because it's outside of your control. A key part of this mental toughness is to make a decision that you're not just going to come out resilient on the other side, you're actually going to come out stronger. It's like going to the gym, right?
When you lift weights, you don't just maintain muscles, you actually grow and you get stronger and then you're able to take on more problems and solve even bigger and hairier and more challenging problems. I'm dealing with failures and stress and change. I think about, okay, how can I come out stronger on the other side? And when my kids are dealing with that, how can I help them?
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Chapter 5: What is post-traumatic growth and how does Katie apply it?
Or when my team is dealing with that, how can I help them so they come out actually stronger? It's the concept of post-traumatic growth. I think for those in the audience that want to look it up, it's an interesting concept.
Mental toughness. The border term is resilience. Now, since you bring up the term mental toughness, so let me move on to the next question about the mental side of things. You and I come from a very strong business education background. And in business education program, we are trained to be highly analytical, strongly logical.
especially for business, but even when it comes to managing our life and career, we have been very thoughtful, but also very analytical, a lot of back and forth analysis, pros and cons. But we have our psychology, we're after a human and business education is light on that kind of training. So when it comes to your reinvention,
how you balance the logic side of you as well as the psychology side of you.
I think the way I approach this and the way I think about it is one is you have to know yourself and know your risk tolerance. And your risk tolerance evolves over time, right? You may have a high risk tolerance early in your career. Maybe your risk tolerance is a bit lower when you're raising your family and then you may be ready for another, you know, exciting move or jump later on.
So knowing yourself and, you know, for me, knowing myself and my risk tolerance was very important. The second part is I had spent a lot of years being very focused on outcomes, being very intense and intent about what I'm doing.
And I have now moved into a phase of exploration and looking at the various opportunities and being less focused on a precise land path, but embracing these opportunities, embracing kind of the fun, the exploration, the curiosity, and even the magic. And that was a major shift for me. I think it happened with experience, with age.
where I was able to kind of embrace, like you said, both the hard and logical decision, but also these intuitive, exploratory, pursuing, you know, fun and pursuing, exploring outside of my comfort zone.
Speaking of resilience, of change, of reinvention, a lot of people are risk-averse. If I keep using the risk concept, you know, they have fear of failure. They're afraid that they will fail. That's also another fear, fear of judgment. They don't like to be judged. They don't like to be questioned. What's your personal definition of failure and success after so many years on the Wall Street?
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