Readying the next wave of credit union CEOs

“Every breaking wave on the shore,
Tells the next one ‘there’ll be one more.’”

The lyrics of U2’s new hit, Every Breaking Wave, are amazingly parallel to the trend in credit union CEO retirements. We read about them every day in the news. And tomorrow there will be (at least!) one more.

Just looking at recent members of the CUES Board, we see retirements. Last year Lary McCants, CCD, CCE, former president/CEO of $865 million IBM Southeast Employees’ Credit Union, Boca Raton, Fla., retired, and we anticipate the retirement of Dale Schumacher, president/CEO of $228 million Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union, Tampa, Fla., later this year.

The waves of CEO retirement are clearly crashing on the shores of CU land, and may continue to do so through 2018. Whether credit unions remain poised to succeed in their marketplaces depends a lot on whether we have sufficiently prepared successors for the outgoing CEOs.

Right now boards that expect to be hiring a new CEO in the near term have an obligation to make sure they’re creating the largest possible pool from which to draw candidates for the top job. After all, they’re spending their members’ money on this new hire. At the time of a core processing conversion, more than one vendor’s system would be considered, right?

Without question, boards need to plan for a national search that looks both inside and outside the industry for candidates that match the visions they have for their credit unions. They also need to make sure they’re readying leaders coming up in their own shops. If enough credit unions do so, boards will have significantly more opportunities to hire a new CEO from within their own organizations or—dare I say it—from another credit union.

There are numerous examples of excellent credit union CEOs being hired in from banks, so I’m not putting that option aside. But when a credit union doesn’t have to look far to find just the right match for its new CEO, it can get someone who comes already steeped in the credit union philosophy and way of thinking.

At CUES’ CEO Institute, we see first hand that credit union directors and current CEOs are on board with this idea. That’s because they are sending their executives from marketing, finance, operations, technology and human resources to this top-tier education program. Graduates from all of these disciplines have gone on to become CEOs. What CEO Institute does so well is giving rising stars from specific areas of a credit union a big picture view of the entire business—a view the CEO definitely needs. (To help credit unions ready more executives, CUES has added an August CEO Institute I again this year, since the spring class is already sold out.)

While CEO Institute prepares future CEOs in the areas of organizational design down to leveraging their individual strengths, other CUES programs continue to prepare current and aspiring credit unions CEOs about specific trends they’ll be facing if they get the nod for the top job. As you read this column, I’m attending CUES’ Apple Pay, MCX & Beyond: Your Mobile Pay Strategy in Dallas, where attendees are being given tools for developing a long-range payments strategy based on current market information. CUES also will debut the CUES School of Payments in May in Chicago, and CUES School of IT Leadership in September in San Antonio.

Those of us in the CU industry don’t have to pick up a conch shell to hear the ocean. The waves of CEO retirements are breaking all around us. Who should your credit union be preparing to be a candidate for the top leadership slot? Maybe it’s you.

Charles Fagan

Charles Fagan

Charles E. “Chuck” Fagan, III is President and CEO of PSCU, a credit union service organization that leverages the cooperative model to better serve credit unions and their members through ... Web: www.pscu.com Details