New CUNA Chairman Switches Priorities To Finding a Successor to Ousted CEO

board of the Credit Union National Association, the board fired its chief executive. Now the task of replacing him falls to Mr. DiSylvestor. "Whatever priorities I had coming in are going to take a back seat to the executive search," said Mr. DiSylvester, who also is chief executive of Motorola Employees Credit Union-West. "My immediate priority is to make this transition as positive a transition as possible." Despite the widely held view by people close to CUNA president Ralph Swoboda that he was canned, Mr. DiSylvester denied that he was dismissed. He said Mr. Swoboda simply chose not to renew his contract. Mr. Swoboda will be staying on until the end of the year, so the trade group has some breathing room in finding a successor. As CUNA prepares for momentous changes, it is now newly steered by a man who has lived through several revolutions in the financial services industry in his 34 years with credit unions. And Mr. DiSylvester, now 61, still believes in changing with the times. For example, Motorola Employees now is working on introducing an Internet site and a PC-based home-banking system. "I see a great future for credit unions," he said. The trade group's four-member executive committee already has selected the members of a search panel, which will include Mr. DiSylvester and CUNA secretary Nancy Pierce. Also helping the search will be a member of a recently formed committee to examine the structure of the Madison, Wis., trade group with an eye toward reform. Mr. DiSylvester predicted the search committee would tap an interim president early next year, followed shortly by a full president. He expressed confidence the CUNA staff would stick together. Once a new chief is picked, other tasks remain. For example, Mr. DiSylvester hopes to bring some unity to the industry's lobbying in Washington, where different trade groups are on opposite sides of several bills. "I intend to work and continue to take Ralph's lead in getting more unity in the movement, in getting resources together in a unified manner rather than having different groups going into different directions," Mr. DiSylvester said. "There's a danger of different people tramping into Washington with different agendas."