September 1, 2010

The response to the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge was huge! In total 41 people from the U.S. and Canada entered. Their projects were inspiring, unique and innovative. Public voting narrowed the field down to six finalists. Learn more about them here. The finalists will present their final presentations—and the Next Top Credit Union Exec will be selected—at CUES’ CEO/Executive Team Network, Nov. 7-10 in Dallas.But for the next several weeks, we will be checking in with one of the non finalists to see how their project is going and learn a bit more about these next generation leaders.

Rob Mizerski
Accounting Supervisor
Liberty First Credit Union 
Lincoln, Neb.

What’s the best thing that has resulted from entering the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec competition?

This project was great for two reasons. The first, and main, reason is that it took me out of my comfort zone. Giving speeches or being on camera has never been a strong suit of mine. Putting myself out there like that will only help my public speaking going forward. Second, this project really evolved into a department-wide project. I asked our resident movie maker, Ryan Morris, to help me with the film, and at that time he said he was interested in this as well. Ryan and I ended up working together for my project, and for his. In the end Ryan had everyone in the department involved in some way. 

Give us the elevator speech about your project (as in how would you describe your project to someone you meet in an elevator).

My project is about reports. They can be exciting, even if most people think they are boring. They can convey so much information!

What progress on the project have you made since entering the competition? 

Our monthly board packet is now completely in color. We are still trying to integrate all the reports, although we have made good progress. While not everyone is trained on the procedures for each report we continue to make headway each day. 

What is your long-term career goal? (What do you want to be when you grow up?)

My goal is to someday be an executive of a credit union, in the capacity of CFO. With any luck, then moving on to be CEO someday. That was the reason I took this job coming out of college.  Having worked closely with David Tagart, CFO at Liberty First CU, has been great. He has shown me more than I could have hoped for. There are many aspects to being an executive that you do not learn in college—for example, how to motivate different types of people, or learning where information is within an organization. This has been a great learning opportunity for me and will serve me well going into the future.

Fill in the dots: The future of credit unions will be bright if ...

People are the greatest assets of credit unions. Any financial institution can have the best rates, or the best products. We truly care about our members’ future and it shows. We try to help those people that have been refused by the banks, that is what we do. We also have fun along the way.

Who is a must-follow on Twitter?

To be honest I do not have a Facebook account or get on Twitter. The only time I really get on the Internet is at work. I say this even though I got started in banking working directly on computers.  My family and friends will ask for help on their computers at home also. I guess after working 8-10 hours a day on the computer, I want to get away from it for a while.

Check out Rob’s Next Top Credit Union Exec entry video to learn more about his project.