San Diego County Credit Union EVP, Nathan Schmidt, Named Among San Diego’s Best Marketing Executives
San Diego County Credit Union EVP, Nathan Schmidt, Named Among San Diego’s Best Marketing Executives
SAN DIEGO, CA (February 4, 2022) — San Diego County Credit Union® (SDCCU®), one of San Diego’s largest locally-owned financial institutions, is proud to announce that SDCCU Executive Vice President, Chief Experience Officer and Digital Channels, Nathan Schmidt was selected as one of SD Metro Magazine’s 2021 Best Marketing Executives. The award recognizes San Diego’s top marketing leaders whose standout work makes an impact in the community.
Schmidt was selected for his dynamic leadership and unwavering focus to raise the bar on creativity, service, strategy and execution, which has resulted in exponential growth for SDCCU and has impacted the overall credit union movement. With over 20 years of financial services management and marketing experience, Schmidt is responsible for strategic planning, brand management, marketing, digital channels, product development, business development, community and media relations and the overall customer experience at SDCCU. His approach to leadership materializes into an execution that leverages all resources to maximize results and awareness of the SDCCU brand and has greatly contributed to SDCCU’s growth and success. This includes propelling SDCCU’s position to one of the top credit unions in the nation and being voted BEST Credit Union for the 22nd consecutive year and for the twelfth year in a row: BEST Financial Planning and BEST Mortgage Home Loan Provider and BEST Auto Loan Provider and BEST Place to Work for the eighth year in the San Diego’s Best Union-Tribune Readers Poll.
In late-2019, Schmidt led the successful launch of SDCCU’s new and improved online banking platform. Since then, new features and enhancements to SDCCU Internet Branch online and mobile banking have been ongoing to better serve SDCCU’s customers and deliver an overall improved customer experience. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the new online banking platform quickly became a valuable resource for customers to perform nearly all banking transactions from the comfort of their home. Throughout 2020 and 2021, SDCCU implemented a number of enhancements to its new platform, making banking from anywhere easy and convenient.
In addition to providing superior banking products and services, SDCCU aims to improve the financial future of customers. Under Schmidt’s direction, with the COVID-19 pandemic preventing SDCCU from hosting in-person presentations, SDCCU mobilized quickly to deliver financial wellness webinars that viewers could attend from the comfort and safety of their own homes. In 2020 SDCCU hosted 269 financial wellness presentations to over 4,200 attendees. In 2021, SDCCU hosted 160 webinars for 3,750 attendees. The webinars are complemented with regular blogs, social media posts and press releases alerting the public of coronavirus scams and other information relevant to financial health.
Additionally, to help give parents who were now teaching kids at home some resources and reprieve, SDCCU shared its SDCCU Biz Kid$ Program. The program, which is predominantly online and ideal for distance learning, helped engage kids at home with a fun and interactive way to learn about money. Biz Kid$ includes an Emmy award-winning television series from the creators of Bill Nye the Science Guy, free curriculum, outreach activities and a website engaging kids of all ages. It is an award-winning, comprehensive financial literacy program focused on teaching kids how to use credit wisely and about the importance of saving, budgeting, investing and giving back to their communities. The program is also based on national standards for financial literacy and entrepreneurship education, and has been mapped to local, state and national standards. To complement the resources, SDCCU furthered its reach with Biz Kid$ and help for parents and teachers by hosting regular Biz Kid$ events online for students throughout the summer and launched a Biz Kid$ Back to School campaign in the fall.
Schmidt has earned notable recognition for his accomplishments and leadership in the time he has been with SDCCU. In 2021, Schmidt’s work was recognized with a Bronze 2021 American Advertising San Diego Award, two Bronze Stevie Awards, two Hermes Creative Awards and two MarCom Awards. SDCCU’s Stuff the Bus campaign was also selected for the prestigious DORA Maxwell Award from the Credit Union National Association. In 2020, Schmidt’s work was acknowledged with a MAC Award and was also designated with the highest honor as the MACQUEE winner and SDCCU was also recognized with two MarCom Awards. In 2019, Schmidt was named among SD Metro Magazine’s Men of Influence and led the way for SDCCU to receive 4 MAC Awards. SDCCU was also acknowledged by OC LGBT Pride with a Community Business Leader Award. In 2018, SDCCU was recognized with six MarCom Awards, a North San Diego Business Chamber Impact and Live Well San Diego Public Health Champion Award and a Spirit of Stonewall Award by San Diego LGBT Pride. In 2017, he was selected as the 2017 Marketing Professional of the Year by the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council.
Schmidt has a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Sacramento, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College of Moraga, Calif. He serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Bowl Game Association (SDBGA), whose mission is to generate tourism, exposure, economic benefit and civic pride for San Diego and its citizens by producing the nation’s most exciting bowl game and festival of events. Schmidt is also active in the financial services industry serving as a board of governor for the California Credit Union League, San Diego and Imperial Chapter. He is also a Biz Kid$ Advisory Board Member.
About San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU)
SDCCU is one of the nation’s top credit unions and ranked a top five credit union in California by Forbes. SDCCU proudly serves the financial needs of customers in Southern California counties, including Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. SDCCU has assets of over $13 billion, more than 437,000 customers, over 40 convenient branch locations and 30,000 surcharge-FREE ATMs. SDCCU provides breakthrough banking products that meet the demands of today’s lifestyle and delivers banking services that save customers money. SDCCU is leading the way, offering FREE Checking with eStatements, SDCCU mobile banking, mortgage loans, auto loans, Visa® credit cards and business banking services. Federally insured by NCUA. Membership required. Equal Housing Opportunity. NMLS #580585. For more information, visit www.sdccu.com.
