From 4-H to the Fed: How raising steers led to monetary policy for this exec
To Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta interim President and CEO Cheryl Venable, the central bank’s mission aligns with what she learned growing up on a small farm in rural Missouri.
She and her brothers were in 4-H and learned to raise steers, a formative experience with lessons about business and banking.
“You have to take out a loan to get the money to buy the steer. You have to make sure that you do the care and feeding of the animal and prepare it to take it to the fair to show,” she said. “Then ultimately at the fair you sell it. So you use the proceeds to pay off your loan.”
Growing up on a farm, “all of that was in service of doing what’s right for not only your family, but for the community,” Venable said.
The Federal Reserve is best known for setting interest rates. But the real mission is to serve the public and financial institutions, she said, as a bank for banks, making sure money is safe and banks are secure.
At the Atlanta Fed, one of 12 regional Fed banks, she added, the tagline is “creating an economy that works for everyone.”
“So that just really aligned with all that I did when I was young,” she said.
Today, Venable’s role as interim president includes field visits to hear from the community, including a trip in the spring to Madison, Georgia.
The Atlanta Fed serves a district covering Georgia, Florida, Alabama and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee that Venable called an ideal sampling ground because its labor force, industries and mix of rural and metropolitan areas “really mirrors the U.S. more broadly.”
Madison, a town with about 5,000 residents about 60 miles east of Atlanta, faces “inevitable tensions between industrial development and rural quality of life,” Venable wrote in a quarterly message to the public.
During the visit, “We have a chance to hear … How are they experiencing the economy today? What are they feeling pressure on related to labor or cost of goods? Or is it difficult for them to find workers?” Venable said. “That’s the sort of information that’s really invaluable in bringing back to the economic conversations to inform monetary policy.”
Venable, 57, joined the Fed 35 years ago in St. Louis after graduating college with a degree in finance and economics. She started out in a management training program, then eventually moved to the Minneapolis Fed and started working in payments. She was later recruited to the Atlanta Fed, where she ran the automated clearing house and check business.
Since 2024, Venable has been the Atlanta Fed’s chief operating officer and first vice president, a job she continues to do, while serving in the interim CEO position after the retirement of Raphael Bostic.
The top job is a “more external-facing versus internal-facing” role, Venable said.
Bostic made frequent public appearances as the face of the Atlanta Fed. He announced his retirement last year.
Venable is not in the running for the permanent position to lead the bank. “I’ve enjoyed the interim president role, but for now, my sweet spot is the COO role,” she said.
Venable sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and shared her tips for those starting out their careers, her favorite restaurant for a business lunch and a lesson learned after a mistake that stuck with her.
Edited for length and clarity.
Q. Do you meet young people who want to follow a similar career path to what you’ve taken, and if so, what’s your advice to them?
A. What I always tell them is there’s no secrets about success.
It’s about, No. 1 ... following through on your commitments and doing a good job. Being consistent, showing up, asking questions. And your good work will ultimately create opportunities for you when they come about.
You become known for doing the best you can and doing a good job, and people will tap you to work with.
Q. What’s your morning routine?
A. I run in my neighborhood, about a three-mile loop that I have.
It helps me really clear my head, think about what’s upcoming for the day, what’s upcoming for the week. And it’s something I can accomplish and say I did — regardless of what the day holds. Because sometimes the day doesn’t unfold that way.
Q. What’s your favorite restaurant for a business lunch?
A. I don’t go out to lunch very often. But if I do, it’s probably someplace close. For lunch, might be Cafe Intermezzo. It’s super convenient (catty corner from the Fed), and the food is always good.
Q. What do you love most about Atlanta?
A. This is the third city that I’ve lived in as an adult, and I have fallen in love with Atlanta, the Southeast, the welcoming environment, the diversity. …
It’s a big town, but it feels like a small community, and that I love.
Q. What breaks your heart about Atlanta?
A. Through Leadership Atlanta (Venable is part of Leadership Atlanta’s class of 2026), it’s a really great opportunity to also see what some of those challenges are.
One of the things that breaks my heart is just quality education for our young people, and there’s just multiple challenges that exist that create that challenge.
I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and give every child quality education because I think that’s so foundational to everything else they do in their life. It leads to jobs. It leads to economic independence. It leads to them being able to give back when they are adults.
That breaks my heart that we don’t have that fully figured out yet.
Q. What’s one mistake you’ve made that transformed how you approach your career?
A. When I first moved to Atlanta … we were working on a fairly large technology program, and it came to my attention that it had some serious issues. …
I need to be hearing from all of the team that’s doing their work. They need to feel like they can come and tell me things, even if it’s bad news, because if it is bad news and I don’t hear about it, then I can’t do something about it. …
I didn’t have that up and down the organization, and as a result, it was painful to have to work through and course correct it. And I felt like if I would have had that, I would have been able to pivot earlier in the process and probably avoid the situation altogether.
That’s probably the biggest lesson learned that I’ve had. It stayed with me.
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