Cheney Should Not Be Judged On Corporates

In response to Mr. Don Denofio's Sept. 13 letter, let me emphasize as a member of the CUNA board of directors who approved the hiring of Bill Cheney that we took his service on the US Central and WesCorp boards into careful consideration, did our due diligence, and concluded nothing about it would diminish Bill's or CUNA's effectiveness.

In the WesCorp case, for example, Bill has made the key point that he left that board in February of 2006, which was before the securities that caused the majority of losses at the corporate had even been purchased. Thus at the end of the day we fully expect a positive outcome to this legal process.

CUNA is the movement's largest and most effective national trade group. We needed a leader with the requisite talent, experience, level of integrity, and record of success the job demands. We interviewed scores of candidates, all of them very highly qualified. The CUNA board felt then, as we do now, that Bill Cheney is the right person for the job.

Indeed the proper way for our member credit unions to form their opinions about Bill is through the prism of his performance as CUNA's CEO, where he has already been able to achieve his early priority of ensuring CUNA moves forward under new leadership full steam and without skipping a beat.

Edwin L. Williams, President/CEO
Discovery FCU, Wyomissing, Penn.