Blog

Meet the NTCUE Final Five

five trophies
James Lenz Photo
Professional Development Manager
CUES

1 minute

A special series from the CUES Podcast

Recently I had the great pleasure of speaking with the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec Final Five Finalists. These young credit union leaders are very talented and innovative in their own right. Each of their projects for NTCUE is interesting and incredibly useful for the credit union industry.

Next month the finalists will present their work at CUES’ CEO/Executive Team Network. The judges and voting public will have a difficult decision in selecting the 2017 CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec.

In a five-part series on the CUES Podcast, I interviewed each finalist.

Derek Fuzzell, VP/finance at $3.2 billion Northwest Federal Credit Union, Herndon, Va., described his F.A.R.E. Framework: The Financial Management for Credit Union Professionals. These courses help credit union managers and future leaders better understand the elements of finance, accounting, risk and economics.

Jessica Vartanian, VP/project implementation and impact at $278 million Red Rocks Credit Union, Littleton, Colo., is working to re-engineer the member journey by leveraging custom data integrations, automated system workflows, and empowered team members.

Geoff Bullock, financial education specialist at $1.1 billion Firefly Credit Union, Burnsville, Minn., shared his personal journey adopting two daughters and how that inspired an adoption loan model that could be replicated in any credit union.

Lindsey McMillen, business systems analyst at $1 billion Y-12 Federal Credit Union, Oak Ridge, Tenn., explained that her CU has been diligently working to improve functionality and usage of its mobile app. Her project on risk-based check cashing is letting members have immediate access to their funds upon deposit.

Josh Gelser, strategic project manager at $1.1 billion DuPont Community Credit Union, Waynesboro, Va., explains how a project management office can help organization improve efficiency and make employees lives easier.

I hope you enjoy listening to these five podcasts as much as I enjoyed interviewing our Final Five.

The CUES podcast is an audio program hosted by James Lenz, CUES professional development manager. James talks to credit union and cross-industry experts for their perspectives on trends and topics that matter to you.

Compass Subscription