There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon for someone to start out as a teller and work his or her way up to the top spot, doing stints in a variety of departments along the way, but it used to be that the least likely stop along the way would be working in IT.
Not anymore.
As technology continues to be increasingly interwoven into almost every aspect of running a credit union, not surprisingly, more credit union CEOs today are coming from the IT department. There are still plenty of CEOs who come to the job after having served as CFO or COO, but these days, it’s not all that uncommon for a CEO to have previously served as a chief information officer (CIO) of chief technology officer (CTO). And even some of those COOs could have come up through ranks of IT, as the technology department frequently comes under operations’ purview.
This is the third in a series
While many industry executives are familiar with Rudy Pereira as the past chairman of the CUNA Technology Council and CUNA Council Forum, the road to being named Royal Credit Union’s CEO in 2011 was well traveled.
“Prior to my credit union experience, I worked at Hughes Aircraft as a systems programmer and at Hewlett-Packard as a systems engineer,” recalled Pereira.
Inspirational Tech-Driven CEOs
The credit union industry was first introduced to Pereira in 1990 when he joined Wescom Credit Union as Programming manager. In 1997, Schools Financial Credit Union hired him as vice president of Strategic and Business Planning. While he enjoyed the chance to “experience life outside of IT,” the following year Kinecta Federal Credit Union came knocking asking him to join as its CIO. He would stay at this post until 2005 when he accepted a job as senior vice president of Technology and Operations at Alliant Credit Union.
“I have been very fortunate to have worked with very knowledgeable and smart CEO’s at all the credit unions I worked at. Bob Brain (deceased) at Wescom, Kevin Foster-Keddie and Tom Graham at Kinecta, Jim Jordan at Schools Financial and David Mooney at Alliant all appreciated IT and understood the value IT brought to the organization,” said Pereira. “I never felt they didn’t understand, quite the contrary.”
Pereira said he learned firsthand how beneficial a tech-driven CEO is to an organization. In 1999, for instance, Kinecta CU’s Tom Graham, an early Palm VII adopter, challenged the CIO to create a “greater sense of technology capability” within the credit union.
“We developed among the first mobile apps on the Palm VII in the country. The development of that app helped create confidence that we could write our own in-house online banking system which we did in 2004,” said Pereira.
Whether or not a CEO with an IT background is better suited for the position is debatable, noted Pereira. “I feel especially blessed to have a strong IT discipline in today’s hyper-IT driven channel experiences.”
An area of concern for Royal CU’s board of directors was whether Pereira could be unbiased when it came to IT initiatives. As a seasoned executive, he anticipated this dynamic and developed a strategy that would eliminate these concerns. However, the search for a new IT leader would take one year, during which time the IT department reported directly to its CEO.
“I have had to learn to detach from being overly involved in IT, and I knew I needed to do so. I purposefully worked to make that happen, and hiring a highly competent IT leader I could respect and trust was the key,” he said. “The IT leader says ‘I get it,’ and we complement each other, but ultimately I trust him to make it happen.”
CEO Evolution
For Pereira, 56, becoming the CEO of the $1.6 billion Royal CU, which supports 160,000 members, 500 employees at 26 full service and 28 school branches, wasn’t necessarily part of his early career strategy. But after two five months stints as interim CEO at Kaiperm Federal Credit Union (May 2008 – September 2008) and Continental Federal Credit Union (September 2010 – January 2011), a new path emerged.
“I would say more than anything that having great leaders to work with will be of tremendous asset to you if that’s your desire (to become CEO),” he said. “David Mooney let me be the interim CEO of two mergers and let me get my MBA.”
These experiences coupled with his tenure as chairman of CUNA Technology Council and Council Forum further increased his interest in attaining a permanent rank of CEO. He counts his CUNA colleagues as additional sources of inspiration.
“Three of the four past immediate council forum chairs (Joe Brancucci, GTE, Erin Mendez Patelco Credit Union, and myself) where all executives and became CEOs,” said Pereira. “I can’t say enough about the experience I gained form working with the councils.”
Looking forward, Pereira said he will continue his education, while never taking for granted his leadership position. “I spent a lot of time reading, taking courses and really having a passion for being able to be given the opportunity to lead an organization that passionately believes and lives by a core purpose and core values.”
