As Vice President of NextGen and Advisor Development programs at the Carson Group, Julie Ragatz, PhD, leads the Next Gen program, which develops young financial advisors to amplify and accelerate their success as they enter the financial services industry. She also creates thought leadership content to support the success of financial advisors at every stage of their careers.

Ragatz is a nationally recognized speaker and author on ethical issues within the financial services industry, creating strong organizational cultures and values-based leadership. She has been featured in numerous national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and MarketWatch. She also authored a regular column, “Ask Julie” in Barron’s, which responded to ethical issues encountered by advisors. 

Prior to arriving at the Carson Group, Ragatz held roles at The American College of Financial Services, where she was the Charles Lamont Post Chair of Ethics and the Director of the Center for Ethics in Financial Services. She instituted and led several mixed-methods research projects on diversity and inclusion in financial services along with building and maintaining client trust. At Nationwide Financial, Ragatz was the executive leader of the Learning and Development team and held roles at the Nationwide Retirement Institute. Ragatz taught at the University of Saint Thomas (St. Paul, MN), Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI), Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ), and was an adjunct professor at the Villanova University School of Business for over a decade.

Ragatz earned her Bachelors of Arts from the University of Saint Thomas in Political Science and Philosophy, her Master of Arts in Social and Applied Philosophy from Marquette University, and her PhD in Philosophy from Temple University. She lives with her husband, Mike, and their four children, Katharine, Isabella, Annabelle, and Hannah-Claire.