CO-OP President Jim Hanisch to retire in June

Jim Hanisch, president of the CO-OP network, plans to retire from the company on June 2, CO-OP Financial Services announced Monday.

In a career spent in the payments and financial technology industry, Hanisch has been with CO-OP for the last 19 years and was appointed president of the CO-OP Network in 2018. Hanisch directs the CO-OP ATM and shared branch networks, both of which individual credit unions frequently tout as part of the movement’s extensive nationwide reach, even if individual institutions don’t have a physical presence beyond a particular area. He is currently the longest-serving member of the company’s executive team.

CO-OP has grown substantially during Hanisch’s time there. When he arrived in 2001, the company processed 477.4 million payments transactions. Last year that total topped 7.6 billion.

“I am grateful for his partnership, thoughtful counsel and friendship over the nearly four years we have worked together so closely here at CO-OP,” Todd Clark, president and CEO of CO-OP Financial Services, said in a statement. “I congratulate Jim on the great legacy that is his career, and I hope the entire credit union movement will join me in wishing him well in retirement.”

The company did not provide specifics about who would succeed Hanisch, but Bill Prichard, CO-OP's director of public relations, said in an email that oversight of both the Shared Branch and ATM networks and associated product lines "will continue to be managed by operations and product leadership teams within CO-OP Financial Services.”