So you want to be a credit union CEO?
This is your must-listen podcast.
In the show, Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union which he grew to be among the nation’s biggest, tells his path from starting as a part-time teller at Bank-Fund Staff Credit Union in Washington DC (created for employees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) to rising to the top at a huge credit union.
Along the way, Kordeleski also ponders what it means that many CEOs of his generation in fact started as tellers or similar entry-level positions. Nowadays many fast risers in credit unions come in the door as executives and never worked in a call center or as a teller. What does that mean?
Later, Kordeleski talks about the free – yes, free – consulting he now offers to a couple of dozen young CU execs who say they want to become a CEO. To qualify a candidate has to hold an SVP-level job or a C-suite slot.
In that consulting, Kordeleski preaches his doctrine of running a highly aggressive credit union – which is how Bethpage grew.
