ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A new credit union advocacy and public affairs firm, known as Leverage Point, Inc., launched last week with a few familiar faces on board.
Called Leverage Point, the new advocacy firm will specialize in mobilizing grassroots advocacy efforts on the legislative front, as well as with work with credit unions on crisis management and communication and brand and reputation management.
Leverage Point has many years of CU industry experience in its management group, including Juan Fernandez Ceballos, its president and CEO, and Larry Blanchard, who joined as senior strategist. Fernandez Ceballos has worked with CUs for 13 years. In addition to running the new firm, he currently serves as VP of governmental affairs for the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, where he has been for the past eight years.
Blanchard has experience both in the credit union industry and the government sphere, having previously served as chairman of the executive committee on the Credit Union Campaign for Consumer Choice (HR 1151), SVP with CUNA Mutual Group, CUNA, and other key and foundational roles with NCUA and NAFCU.
"For the past two decades, credit unions have not scored any major legislative victories. The reality is that every credit union needs to build its own advocacy program," Fernandez Ceballos said in a statement. "Leverage Point is here to help credit unions – no matter the size – build a sound program at the local and state levels, and with its' appointed federal legislators."
Fernandez Ceballos has served as a New Mexico-based lobbyist at the state and federal level and has helped build some of the largest PACs in New Mexico, as well as some of the strongest grassroots campaigns at the Round House in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fernandez Ceballos previously worked for the New York Credit Union Association, and has served in several other roles in the industry.
According to Fernandez Ceballos, years of lobbying has taught him some "very important lessons" in successful legislative strategy and execution. One such lesson was optimal results were nearly always only achievable via cohesive, streamlined strategies that fully intertwined advocacy and public affairs, specifically tailored to an organization's unique strategies, goals and stakeholders. Working over the past eight years, however, the Puerto Rico native said he recognized the credit union industry's virtual lack of (and distinct need for) lobbying or public affairs firms that housed both services under one agency umbrella.
Driving the firm's PR arm, public affairs director Michael Barrio comes to Leverage Point after having previously worked as a legislative analyst for a Santa Fe-based lobbying firm, and for the New Mexico State University Office of Government Relations. He spent several years in Los Angeles, and gained extensive expertise in corporate human resources, organizational development and alignment, and media relations during his tenure at The Walt Disney Co. and Yahoo!, Inc. He also currently teaches an advanced business and professional communication course at New Mexico State University.
