HUNT VALLEY, Md.-After nearly 20 years as CEO, Rick Webb is retiring as president of Atlantic Financial FCU. During his career Webb has overseen the addition of more than 150 SEGs, the credit union's asset size has more than doubled, as has its membership, and Webb has overseen the integration of six other CUs via mergers. Atlantic Financial was also the first credit union in the Baltimore area to become involved in shared branching. Below Webb shares his thoughts as part of this Credit Union Journal Exit Interview.
CU Journal: How did you come to be involved in credit unions?
Webb: When I first started working at C&P Telephone (Bell Atlantic and now Verizon) out of college (first year), my boss was on the board of directors of then Baltimore Telephone FCU. They needed a Supervisory Committee Chair and he knew I had some accounting in college and asked me to become the chair. Your boss asks you to do something, it was the company's credit union, so I naturally said "OK." Our board elections were conducted at the annual meetings back then (now mail ballots, if we need one) and I was nominated and elected and served for almost 24 years on the board, in all positions, until leaving the telephone company and taking over as CEO of the credit union.
CUJ: What have you learned about driving and managing growth?
Webb: Simply stated, being involved in all aspects! Being involved in all aspects! Finding out what the members wanted, needed and were getting elsewhere, and then developing those products and services and offering them as better services than the members were already getting. But, also marketing to groups and individuals that didn't know what credit unions were, which involved networking, networking, networking and more networking. And, providing one-on-one service to each and every member that you could "touch." Taking all that together and instilling it in every employee to do the same.
CUJ: What have you learned about managing people during your career?
Webb: I had a minor in personnel in college before it was called "human resources" or now sometimes referred to as "human capital." At the telephone company I had responsibilities for managing people from day one, with sometimes as many as 350. That included management, clerks, technicians, SMEs (subject matter expects), staff, line, operations, external affairs, etc. Bottom line: be honest, be fair and handle positive and negative situation as you would want them handled if you were on the receiving end.
CUJ: You've been involved in six mergers; what are the keys to making those work?
Webb: Letting the members of the merged credit union know that they would receive more and better service than they were already getting. Letting the employees of the merged credit union know that they would be treated fairly (if appropriate to retain them) and assure your existing staff that you would work with them in making the merger work. Of those six, most were easy, but a couple were failing credit unions that had a negative impact on our credit union. So it was also necessary to explain to the board why it was good for the merging credit union without negatively impacting existing members. It's not always cut and dried.
CUJ: What advice would you share with a new CEO starting out?
Webb: Credit unions are not banks; they are not profit-driven; you do not have stockholders to please, you have members who are owners! You might be a CEO, but you better be prepared to get down to your members' levels and work with them in such a way that it's a win/win, meaning a win for the member and credit union.
CUJ: What is your view on the future of credit unions, if there is to be one?
Webb: Unfortunately, because of congressional legislation, regulation and compliance, the smaller credit unions that are doing an outstanding job of serving their members just won't be able to survive. That means they will have to merge, which isn't always bad. BUT, as some credit unions get bigger and bigger, they tend to lose sight of being a credit union and start operating like a bank. As that tends continues to happen, it feeds the argument of taking away our uniqueness, that we're a "movement."
We're seeing more and more "bankers" coming into the credit unions rather than moving up from the ranks. Boards are changing and they're wanting more profit, more capital, and lower expenses, rather than serving the members. We need to be very, very careful.
