U.S. Central CEO Dan Kampen Resigns

LENEXA, Kansas - U.S. Central CEO Dan Kampen resigned on Aug. 3, effective that day. U.S. Central's SVP of Asset Liability Dave Dickens was named interim CEO. A three-person search committee made up of U.S. Central Board members has been formed to find Kampen's successor. It includes Mid-Atlantic Corporate FCU CEO Ed Fox, Northwest Corporate FCU CEO Kathy Garner and WesCorp CEO Bob Siravo. Kampen has led U.S. Central as CEO since 1997. He's faced some recent challenges, such as a revamping of the board structure that moved to a tiered capital system, with seven of the nine board members being corporate CEOs. The remaining two seats go to U.S. Central's non-corporate members. Large corporates aggressively pushed for greater corporate control on the board, previously natural person CUs also held board seats. Kampen was also in charge during a major systems change for the corporates' corporate, moving away from EDS and to Symitar. U.S. Central recently refocused some of its tech-CUSO business, by selling off some technology solutions such as home banking, and concentrating solely on bill pay. Some believe U.S. Central, a single entity that makes up one of the industry's three tiers, may need to evolve in coming years. As larger corporates gain the economies of scale to do more things efficiently, U.S. Central's role could diminish. However, U.S. Central is a critical provider for many of the industry's small to mid-size corporates. This is the second sudden departure of a corporate executive this year, with SunCorp's Eric Kenealy being terminated earlier in the year.