Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia MacWilliam.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born in Garzón, a very small and rural town in the Colombian Southwest. I lived there until I was ten years old and vividly remember the violence caused by the drug cartels, guerilla warfare and Pablo Escobar’s war against extradition. I still remember clearly the day that he died.
My family lived off of agriculture. I spent every weekend at our farm milking cows, chasing chickens and swimming with my cousins in the river. It was a beautiful childhood.
My mom and I moved from Colombia to California (Bay Area) when I was 10 years old (December 28, 1994). I spoke no English and my mom worked three jobs to keep us afloat and send money back home. Let’s just say that I lived a very different life than my friends and schoolmates in Palo Alto, one of the most affluent cities in the country.
I was fortunate to receive a Gates Millenium scholarship for minority students to attend the University of California, Berkeley. I majored in Architecture. I grew up always wanting to be a lawyer, but there are no college requirements for law school, so I decided to study architecture because I loved drawing and math. I made the decision to go to law school while I was a Spanish-language volunteer interpreter for asylum cases in Berkeley –I developed a deep passion for advocacy while working with a team of lawyers representing individuals seeking asylum in the U.S.
I went straight to the University of Chicago law school upon graduating Berkeley. I fell in love with Chicago the minute I stepped foot in this city and decided to stay here following law school instead of going back to California. Following graduation, I started working for Baker McKenzie, a law firm downtown, where I focused on corruption-related investigations. I traveled all over the world for investigations and was able to lead my own cases by the time I left by leveraging my Spanish-speaking skills.
Four and a half years after joining Baker McKenzie, the founder of Pangea Money Transfer, an online and mobile money transfer application, approached me about joining the company. I jumped at the opportunity of working for a Fintech start up with a social mission. I understood the value proposition right away — being able to transfer money on a mobile phone in 30 seconds with a fair and transparent pricing structure was a stark contrast to the outrageous fees my mom and I experienced when sending money back home through the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, and the long lines my mom and I used to suffer through. For someone working minimum wage and several jobs, time and is money, and every penny counts. Ten U.S. dollars could cover groceries for an entire week back home.
Working for the last four years at Pangea Money Transfer has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, both at the personal and professional level. I joined Pangea when the company did not yet have a product in the market. We now send money transfers to 6 countries in Latin America and 9 countries in Asia. I worked as Pangea’s Vice President of Risk & Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer and helped the company navigate through strict anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations at the state and federal level. I also represented the company in procuring the money transmitter licenses required to operate. But the truth is that at the very beginning, before there was even a product to regulate, I, like every other member of the founding team, put on our Pangea t-shirts, headed over to Little Village, and passed out flyers. As one of the only Spanish-speaking members of the team, I also worked customer service and did everything it took to get the company off the ground. Pangea was our baby.
I decided to leave Pangea last week for new opportunities in the cryptocurrency world. I am off to my next crazy adventure!!!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Moving to a drastically different country, with a drastically different culture, and not knowing the language was very isolating and difficult for me. I went from being surrounded by family and friends, to being alone and bullied. My mom was my biggest role model and motivator during this time. She always emphasized the importance of education, and her strength, perseverance, and tenacity became my guiding principles. She is the most amazing woman and a person that I have ever met.
I also consider myself very lucky in having been able to develop wonderful friendships and mentorships along my way with people who were both very similar and very different from me. These friendships and mentorships were invaluable in helping me through law school and my early career. It gave me a perspective that I would otherwise not have had.
It hasn’t always been easy being a young woman in the business/tech/legal industry. I have to be much more aware of how I carry myself and may be perceived. My assertiveness is always at risk of being interpreted as abrasiveness and anything from my friendly demeanor to the frequency with which I smile may cause others to question how seriously I take my job just because I am a woman. The biggest lesson that I’ve learned through these challenging experiences as a professional woman has been to stay FOCUSED and not let someone else’s misperceptions or judgments distract me from being my best self and doing an outstanding job.
Image Credit:
Pangea Money Transfer
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