Julie Simmons

Julie Bagbeni-Simmons is an author, financial educator, and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in banking and insurance. She spent decades as a corporate banker, leading teams at Fortune 500 institutions and championing financial education initiatives. She later owned her own insurance agency, and today she runs several businesses of her own.

The daughter of diplomats, Julie grew up in Ethiopia, the Congo, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and India, and attended the United Nations International School before settling in the United States. That global upbringing gave her a lifelong curiosity about people and a gift for explaining complicated ideas simply.

Julie is the creator of the Banking for Brats series, which uses fun, simple stories to teach kids how to save, spend smart, budget, and understand that credit cards are not magic. The name is personal. As a child, Julie was given everything she wanted but was never taught to save. She wrote the series so today’s kids learn the money lessons she had to figure out on her own. The series includes Saving Like a Boss, Spending Smart Like a Star, Budgeting for Snacks and Sneakers, and Credit Cards Are Not Magic, along with a companion coloring book and crossword puzzle.

Drawing on her years of leading teams, Julie is also the author of The Leader, Not the Boss, a practical guide for new managers who want to lead with purpose beyond the title.

Julie loves bringing her books to life by reading to children at libraries, schools, and youth programs. She is a wife and the mother of a son.