The CUInsight Experience podcast: Upward with Mark Zook (#230)

Welcome to episode 230 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight, and Jilly Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.

This episode is sponsored by Alacriti, a leading payments fintech helping credit unions modernize money movement. Alacriti enables real-time money movement experiences for loan payments, A2A transfers, digital disbursements, and bill pay. Through a single cloud-native platform that connects to RTP, FedNow, Fedwire, ACH, Visa Direct, and Zelle, credit unions can progressively modernize without overhauling legacy systems. Learn more at alacriti.com!

In this new 2026 season, Jilly and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

Join us for this episode as we welcome Mark Zook, President and CEO of Maps Credit Union. He joins us to discuss something that many leaders experience but rarely say out loud: the fact that real growth often begins after you become the CEO. Mark stepped into the CEO role internally and has continued to evolve as a leader via years of work both inside his organization and across the credit union movement!

Listen in as Mark shares what it was like moving into the CEO seat after seventeen years at Maps, believing himself to be prepared only to quickly realize how wrong that he had been. His first months in the role happened during the chaos of the Great Recession, which forced him and his newly assembled executive team to come together quickly, make difficult decisions, and build resilience in real time—all early challenges which shaped how he approaches leadership today!

We also spend some time talking about one of the biggest transitions leaders face: shifting from being the person who gets things done to the person who empowers others to do the work. Mark reflects on how his “builder” mindset had to evolve once he became CEO. Instead of being the one executing, he instead had to learn how to listen, support, and guide the people around him.

Throughout our conversation, we also touch upon the role that mentors play in leadership growth, with Mark reflecting on the major influence that former Maps CEO Dan Penn had on him, having pushed him into opportunities long before he felt ready. That spirit of curiosity and experimentation has shaped a lot of Maps' culture—from launching organizations that benefit the industry and even to entering newly emerging areas such as cannabis banking. We also talk about the value of iteration in leadership and how ideas rarely start fully formed. Hear how many of the initiatives that began as small experiments at Maps have grown into major organizations serving credit unions nationwide.

Along the way, Mark shares lessons about risk, resilience, and the importance of building strong teams. If you have ever wondered what leadership growth looks like after the promotion, our conversation with Mark Zook offers an honest and thoughtful perspective!

[2:46] – Despite 17 years’ preparation, becoming CEO during the Great Recession revealed how much Mark still needed to learn.
[6:20] – Hear how years of scrappy challenges prepared Maps to unite and endure the turmoil of Mark’s early CEO transition.
[8:29] – Hear how Mark realized that leadership sometimes means accepting obstacles and focusing on building around them.
[9:54] – Jilly reflects on how becoming CEO revealed that she could finally act on bold ideas and reshape long-standing traditions.
[12:10] – Mark reveals that, after becoming CEO, he had to shift from building solutions himself to listening and guiding those who did.
[13:41] – Leadership requires shifting from doing the work yourself to empowering others and trusting their abilities!
[16:59] – Hear how speaking up as a young employee led Mark’s mentor Dan Penn to trust him with major projects.
[19:24] – Dan kept assigning audacious challenges that pushed Mark to grow far beyond his experience.
[22:39] – Staying curious and embracing continuous learning can help fuel creativity, resilience, and long-term organizational growth!
[26:18] – Mark argues that learning from failure strengthens leadership if you accept setbacks without letting them define you
[29:12] – Hear how, with support from their board, Maps has embraced “fail fast,” using risks, including cannabis banking, to drive growth.
[32:08] – Maps’s board backed bold initiatives when they clearly advanced member service and strengthened the credit union mission.
[34:50] – Mark believes that a strong idea backed by a supportive board can create lasting impact beyond the organization.
[37:30] – Small, early initiatives often grow into major programs with lasting influence.
[39:22] – Building a strong executive team requires patience, experimentation, and recognizing talent over time.
[41:20] – Mark asserts that leaders only benefit from networks of experts and mentors to test ideas and ensure good, sensible decisions.