Learning the CU Ropes

This is bonus from “Passing the Baton” in the September 2016 issue of Credit Union Management magazine.

CUES member Stefanie Rupert, CIE, then a financial services executive from the Chicago area, was offered the chief operating officer post at Collins Community Credit Union in 2011 following a two-hour conference call interview and a day-and-a-half onsite visit to meet the board, executive team and direct reports at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, CU.

Rupert got a second call soon after the job offer, asking if she would consider being trained as president/CEO Richard Benhart’s successor, an opportunity she also accepted. She assumed full leadership of the $953 million credit union on April 1.

Despite that early offer, “I had to earn it,” says Rupert of her five years learning the credit union way. “And that’s where Rick was amazing. The departing CEO has to be extremely open to allowing a prospective successor to have authority and to make decisions and try new things that the organization has not seen or done before.”

From her first day with Collins Community CU, Rupert managed departments accounting for 80 percent of the staff, while Benhart continued to manage finance, marketing, and HR in the early transition years. Rupert headed the weekly senior team meetings and presented at board meetings. In addition, she was active in credit union trade associations, completed the three segments of CUES’ CEO Institute, and took a prominent role in community organizations and events.  

And that was not all. “All but two members of Rick’s senior team were also planning to retire within the same time frame, so I took the lead in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new executives and developing the organizational structure,” she notes.

The long transition also gave the credit union staff a chance to adjust to the differing management and communications styles of the longtime CEO and his successor. “Rick and I shared similar thinking, but I’m a much more direct communicator,” Rupert says. “The staff was used to his style, so there were times when they would go directly to him and bypass me. But he and I had an understanding, and he would turn them right back to me.”

Rupert attended every single board meeting over her years as COO, as well as such social activities as golf outings and dinners with board members. “There were plenty of opportunities for them to get to know me and my style, strengths and strategies.” When directors retired during the interim before Benhart’s retirement, Rupert also participated in recruiting new board members.

The formal leadership transition began last September, as part of the credit union’s strategic planning session. Planning covered internal and external communications strategies, an employee survey that followed Benhart’s retirement, and a series of retirement parties and receptions within the credit union and wider community.

Looking back on the past five years, Rupert is deeply appreciative of the opportunities she’s had to forge connections in the credit union industry as well as in the counties Collins Community CU serves.

“I think the foresight Rick had in getting me involved with credit union education was pivotal because I have had a tremendous amount of leadership training and an opportunity to forge connections for problem resolution, collaboration and networking,” she says. “I still reach out regularly to those 60 people [participating in the CEO Institutes]. And I know all the bankers and credit union executives in the towns we serve by name and all the college and university presidents—and they know me. And that has been tremendous.”

Karen Bankston is a longtime contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Portland, Ore.