Meet the Team: Dorothy Navales

Dorothy Navales is a member of Yeske Buie’s client service team working in our San Francisco office. Dorothy has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry and has been with Yeske Buie for over 4 years. Prior to joining Yeske Buie, Dorothy worked for Citigroup’s Institutional Investor Group, Shuman & Schneider, Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange Trading & Sales, and Union Bank of California’s Capital Markets division. Dorothy interacts directly with the firm’s clients on a daily basis. Additionally, her responsibilities include operational and administrative support to enhance the client experience and the support of the financial planning team in serving clients. We asked Dorothy to share a bit about her professional and personal life and learned a lot about her life as a a working mother of a promising athlete!

How did you begin working in the financial services industry?

The simple answer is, I was incredibly blessed with various opportunities in the financial services industry and it just fit right for me. I came to the United States from the Philippines with my dad and I had no sense of direction on what I wanted to do. My first job was a teller at Bank of America and as the job evolved, I was working in Foreign Exchange. Even with the progression of the job, I wanted more for myself and ended up changing jobs and working at Union Bank as a vault teller and foreign exchange teller. I then moved on to the investments area and eventually found a love for financial planning and Yeske Buie.

What is your favorite working at Yeske Buie?

I love working with Clients! I just love being around people, learning about them, and building a relationship with them. Every time we hold an Open House event, it’s amazing to see everyone and get closer to people. I learn about them and their families and they learn about me and my daughter and remember things about my life. Together we may come across difficult situations but the hard work is very rewarding. I also love the flexibility that Yeske Buie has; it was so important for me wherever I worked to have flexible hours so I could be a part of my daughter’s life and take her to her games and practices.

Many of your current updates include news about both you and your daughter, Dannika. There’s no doubt that you and Dannika share a very special mother/daughter bond. What can you tell us about your life as a sports mom?

Well Dannika was a very active child and kept me busy! I had tried to take her to playgrounds but it just wasn’t enough for my child. A friend suggested to me that she needed somewhere to direct her energy and it happened that I had a friend who taught soccer and he recommended we try a program in Palo Alto. Dannika and I showed up at the practice and they immediately rejected her because she was tiny. My friend convinced the coach to try her out and by the end of the practice she had a jersey and a spot on the team. From there, I found out my daughter was very athletic and by first grade, people were already talking about scholarships. As she grew up, I spent a lot of my time and weekends traveling to practices and games and loved every second of it.

Wow, that’s great! Does she still play sports today?

Yes, she is currently on the basketball team at Whittier College and I try to attend as many of her games as I can. In her sophomore year, I attended my favorite game of her college career. The team was struggling and as I was watching, I felt bad and had mixed emotions because as a mom you want the best for your child. What I thought would be a regular game turned out to be a game where she scored 38 points and ended up on the front page on her school paper! After the game, the other coach asked to talk to her about her amazing performance. From a distance, I could see how happy she was and all the great compliments she was receiving from the coach – I was SO PROUD! I will never forget that game.

What a special game to watch your daughter play! Will basketball continue to be in Dannika’s life after college?

Dannika hopes to continue playing, ideally in a different country over in Europe. She has a good friend who plays in France and she wants to do that, too. As her mother, I want to support her in any way I can and have been looking for an agent to help her reach that goal. In addition to loving basketball, she loves Europe. As her high school graduation gift, I gave Dannika the option of a car or a trip to Europe and she picked to travel with me. So, she and I took a mother /daughter trip to the UK, Spain, Italy and France. The trip was very dear for both of us; she could have picked the car but she picked me and that made me very proud of her.