Meet Michele Dean, CEO of Suffolk Federal Credit Union on Long Island in New York and that is a $1.5 billion institution.
That makes Dean one of few female CEOs of big credit unions – and in this podcast, she talks about that. She also talks about her credit union mentor, Kirk Kordeleski, who hired her when he was at Bethpage and who gave her increasing responsibilities that put her on the path to senior leadership. You know Kordesleski. He’s twice been a guest on this podcast, most recently talking about creative credit union compensation strategies. Link in the show notes.
Dean gets animated in talking about what Suffolk needs to do to stay competitive in a region where three credit unions are bigger, and one of them is much bigger.
How to survive? According to Dean, it will be by harnessing smart tech and she is on the hunt for just that.
Proof: your podcast host met her a few months ago at an Austin Texas conference hosted by CU 2.0 – and, she says, she already is pursuing tech projects with three fintechs she learned about there.
In the show, she mentions crypto expert Joe – that is Joe Keller, a digital guru and a past guest on this show. Link to his podcast in the show notes.
And there’s also a shout-out for cannabis banking leader Sundie Seefried – and there’s a link to her show in the show notes.
Here’s a question for you: Do share draft accounts matter anymore? You want to hear Dean’s answer.
A final thought to ponder: is Dean a harbinger of a generation shift that is radically remaking the CEO office in credit unions as Baby Boomers punch the clock for the last time? And what would that mean?
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