Ophelia Bailly
AVP Card Services and Portfolio Manager
608-310-1265
5515 Monona Drive, Monona
obailly@lakeridge.bank
1. What is your role at the bank? What are some things that you help bank customers with? Why might people interact with you at Lake Ridge Bank?
As AVP Card Services and Portfolio Manager, I lead the Card Operations and Card Servicing teams. I focus on ensuring that our credit and debit card offerings are industry competitive and provide top-tier products and experiences for our clients. While clients may not always interact with me directly, the work my teams and I do touches many parts of your everyday banking experience whenever you use a Lake Ridge Bank debit or credit card.
2. What is something you really enjoy about your work?
I really enjoy the challenge of staying creative so that our card products never become stagnant. We want to always be updating our card features to fit the way people live and hopefully resonate with your day-to-day needs. That creativity feeds my energy on a daily basis. I also love all the interactions with my team. I don’t know if it’s unique to banking, but I feel like you really get to know your coworkers on a personal level and build strong friendships over time. Those relationships are what makes going to work every day so special.
3. How did you get into banking as a career?
A banking career was definitely not the obvious choice for me. Against familial advice explaining that my degree would not be the most practical option in the real-world job market, I earned my Bachelor of Arts in 19th Century Literature from the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School in New York City. I had dreams of being a college professor or writing a novel someday. Instead, I was a young mom living with my first husband in Peterborough, NH, which was a one-stop-sign town at that time. After enjoying life for a while as a stay-at-home mom, I started feeling stir crazy and began looking for a part-time job. The only place in town that was hiring was Granite Bank. They hired me to oversee the safe deposit boxes, and I’ve been in banking ever since. I got that first job in banking more than two decades ago, and I’ve been at Lake Ridge Bank for nearly 16 years now.
4. Do you have 1-3 favorites to recommend?
I have a book, television show, and band to recommend!
The Bees by Laline Paull is told from the perspective of a bee colony. It has a fictional storyline, but every aspect of the bee’s day-to-day life is based on all the scientific knowledge we have about bees. There are aspects of herd mentality, environmental issues, and feminist themes. I am an avid reader – see more about my degree in 19th Century Literature! – but I had never built that kind of character relationship with an insect before, sympathizing with and relating so closely to a bee. I still think about that book so often.
The television show Shrinking is absolutely brilliant in so many ways. It’s a show that just delivers truth bombs about living in the world and how we interact with other people and our own family members. It’s about finding the beauty in being imperfect. Then wrap all of that in humor because even at our worst, there’s always something to laugh about. It is so true to life. Sometimes I watch a show and don’t believe that’s how someone would interact, but this one really resonates.
The band Skating Polly is definitely not for everyone, but I just love everything about them. There are elements of grunge and punk paired with feminist-focused themes. They have tremendous lyrics with fantastic harmonies, and they play the electric guitar like nobody’s business! They range from beautiful, emotional ballads to heavy guitar rock-the-house songs. They just put their hearts into every song and leave nothing on the table.
