By staying true to herself, maintaining self-confidence and never letting her determination waver, Valerie Ramsey, director of finance and operations at Sterling Commercial Credit, has always found solutions to conquer each obstacle she has faced in her professional career.

“I was fortunate to have managers along the way who were supportive, recognized my value and gave me the opportunities to continue to excel,” Ramsey says.

Ramsey has been in the asset-based lending industry for more than 27 years at various types of institutions, starting as an intern in the asset-based finance group at National Bank of Detroit. After rising through the ranks and working with two other companies — Great Lakes Business Credit, now known as Bridge Business Credit, and Talmer Bank, now Huntington Bank by way of three mergers — Ramsey was recruited by Sterling Commercial Credit in 2022. Stepping into her role as director of finance and operations, Ramsey’s aim was to assist with scaling the business exponentially and building a solid accounting and operations team to support anticipated growth.

Just like she has at Sterling Commercial Credit, Ramsey has utilized her experience and expertise to build successful ABL teams at each institution for which she has worked. She also enjoys teaching and mentoring employees so they can make their own positive impact within the ABL industry. In addition, Ramsey has developed processes and procedures to enhance the overall business model for her teams across multiple businesses.

To Ramsey, building and nourishing relationships is imperative to success. She says listening and remaining open to others’ perspectives is extremely important. In doing so, she believes she can learn something new, with such lessons potentially coming from anywhere.

“New challenges may cause angst but are often an opportunity to grow professionally and personally,” Ramsey says.