Employee Spotlight: Wafaa Starkey

Food and Beverage Accounting Coordinator Wafaa Starkey is best known by her co-workers as “the money lady,” but if you dig a little deeper, there are many layers to Wafaa. This Egyptian-born, former national swim team member not only has a knack for numbers but a keen interest in science.

Starkey’s job entails counting cash from concession stands and bars, making bank deposits and generating reports related to food and beverage sales at both Cobb Galleria Centre and Cobb Energy Centre. She has worked here for 14 years, and her meticulous attention to detail makes her well suited for the position. “I’m always balancing and counting, and I can’t handle it if I’m short a penny,” she said. “Cash is cash, and it’s important.”

After travelling the world for more than a decade, including a five year stint in Algeria, Starkey, her husband and family permanently moved to the United States in 1990 when her husband, who worked for Lockheed, took a permanent position in the Marietta facility. Starkey has a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Aim Shams University in Cairo. Prior to working at the Cobb Galleria Centre, she worked in accounting for a group of Hilton hotels and in her youth was a breast stroke specialist as a member of the Egyptian National Swim Team.

Outside of work, Starkey enjoys Arabic poetry and studying science and spirituality. She is pleased to say that she quit smoking on January 30th. Starkey lives in Kennesaw and has three grown children. She is the very proud grandmother of three boys and one girl.