Shannon Cahoon, community outreach coordinator at the $967 million Fibre Federal Credit Union of Longview, Wash., has been named the Credit Union Executives Society's Next Top Credit Union Exec for 2016.
Cahoon's project – which aims to track the return on investment of financial education – was chosen from a group of international applicants ages 35 and younger. Those finalists were selected by a team of judges in September.
As one of five finalists, Cahoon's blog and video updates over the past few months provided the industry with an insight into the project's progress, and culminated with a final presentation Monday at CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network.
Cahoon emerged the winner after a four-part scoring process that included judging panel results, a measurement of her social media engagement, plus audience and online voting. She will receive a $20,000 educational prize package that includes registration, accommodation and economy airfare to any two of CUES' CEO Institutes – one in 2017 and one in 2018.
The credit union industry in North America, CUES said in a statement, will benefit from Cahoon's turnkey system, allowing them to track, measure and prove the profitability of their financial education efforts.
"Attendees at our CEO/Executive Team Network conference were excited that Shannon Cahoon and the rest of this year's NTCUE Finalists continue to demonstrate that the future of the credit union movement is strong and the plans and ideas coming from this next generation of leaders are both smart and achievable," said CUES president and CEO John Pembroke.
The other four finalists were:
- Ali Fett, AVP of talent development at the $760-million Verve, a Credit Union, of Oshkosh, Wisc.
- Colleen Tilton, director of staff development at the $440-million Blackhawk Community Credit Union of Janesville, Wisc.
- Michael Murdoch, marketing specialist at the $236-million NW Priority Credit Union of Portland, Ore.
- Nicole Haverly, senior portfolio manager at the $1.8-billion Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union of Saint Paul, Minn.
