Haegelin Named Winner of Wegner Award for Lifetime Achievement

MADISON, Wis.—Tim Haegelin, retired president/CEO of Generations FCU in San Antonio, has been named winner of the 2014 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Lifetime achievement by the National Credit Union Foundation.

“Tim’s list of achievements is outstanding,” said John Gregoire, who chairs the NCUF’s Awards Committee. “He might not be a household name but his resume and body of work is so significant the Wegner Awards Selection Committee is proud to bring him forward as a Lifetime Achievement winner.”

Haegelin joined Generations FCU (then San Antonio City Employees Federal Credit Union) in 1980 as Associate Manager, taking the helm as President and CEO in 1984. Prior to joining Generations, Haegelin served as president/CEO of Central Texas Catholic Credit Union from 1967 to 1979 and worked with other credit unions prior to that time. When Haegelin retired in November of 2012, he had served the credit union industry for more than 49 years.

Under his leadership and direction, Generations expanded from a credit union with one location with 14,000 members and $37 million in assets to 14 locations, 49,000 members and more than $400 million in assets.

The NCUF said Haegelin leveraged partnerships to enable Generations FCU to open co-located branches with the City of San Antonio at the airport and with Goodwill Industries of San Antonio, and one of the largest retailers in the community, H-E-B Grocery Stores.

Staff members have voted Generations FCU year after year as one of the “best places to work in San Antonio” by the San Antonio Business Journal and San Antonio Express-News.

“Having worked for a couple of Savings & Loan Institutions, I had not been exposed to the ‘people helping people’ philosophy, but working under Tim, that changed quickly,” said Maria Martinez, president/CEO of Border FCU and a former Generations FCU employee. “Under Tim's leadership, I learned to serve the underserved, to be involved in the community, to be charitable, and to partake in many events that benefited the less fortunate. He always set the example for us to follow.”

Within the community, Haegelin oversaw the launch of a pilot program with the City of San Antonio Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to offer a 0%, zero-fee alternative refund anticipation loan (RefundExpress) to ensure that the under-served and un-banked within the community were able to keep their annual tax returns out of the hands of predatory lenders.

Haegelin has also worked to establish a partnership with Goodwill Industries of San Antonio to assist the un-banked and under-served within the community. The partnership led Haegelin to oversee the development of Generations FCU’s OptionCheck checking account and MoneyExpress loan, which are products and services that are designed to break the significant hold that payday lenders have within the community. The partnership is considered a best practice and is currently being reviewed by Goodwill Industries for replication across the country.

Haegelin established a full-time financial education program in 1996, which has evolved over the years and provides financial education for consumers, youth and small businesses.

The NCUF said one of Haegelin’s most significant and lasting contributions comes from the non-profit he co-founded in 1986, Credit Unions for Kids (CU4Kids). Credit unions across the country participate in countless fundraisers year after year – and it all started with a phone call from Haegelin’

Haegelin is one of three winners of the 2014 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement. This is the first time in NCUF’s history that three awards for Lifetime Achievement will be given. It earlier named Sarah Canepa Bang as a winner.

The award will be presented at the Herb Wegner Memorial Awards  dinner hosted by NCUF at the Grand Hyatt Washington on Feb. 24.

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