Numbers Add Up for Stratton

Numbers and math were always in the cards for Virginia native Sabrina Stratton, she just thought it meant she’d end up in accounting.

But in her third year at Old Dominion University, she decided a career as a bean counter probably wasn’t the right path.

She graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration and a concentration in accounting, but she started a manager training program for Wachovia Bank in Portsmouth, Va.

Stratton completed the year-long program in six months and landed as a financial center manager where she managed as many as nine people.

The branch averaged 15,000 transactions per month and about $600,000 in monthly deposits.

She was promoted to a larger branch in January 2006 – averaging 27,000 transactions and $1.5 million in monthly deposits – but she was recruited away by Suntrust Bank of Williamsburg, Va., in mid-2006.

With Suntrust, she was the business relationship manager, and oversaw 10 associates and $40 million in total investments and loans.

In early 2007, her husband landed a job in Bentonville, so the family picked up and moved to Northwest Arkanas.

Stratton said everyone she talked to about banks to work with pointed to Arvest, so she applied and in May 2007 landed as the branch manager, assitant vice president of the bank’s downtown Bentoville office.

It’s the largest by deposits in the bank with $469.9 million as of June 30.

In her time at Arvest, she’s been selected to attend the Walton Institute, which is an internal leadership development program.

“My mother was the person who laid the foundation for me,” Stratton said. “She was a single parent who worked full-time and went to school.”

Stratton hopes to pass her work ethic on to her son and others, as she is a Big Sister volunteer and hopes to earn a graduate degree sometime in the next few years.

Even though she has managed people 30 years her senior, Stratton’s comfortable in the leadership role.

“As a manager, it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you treat people with respect and provide clear direction, you will be a success.”