HENDERSON, Nev. — Enthusiasm, passion for the job, andaccounting/ financial experience count plenty for marketersexpecting to move into the top CEO slot at credit unions, but thefemale challenge in overcoming the good ol' boy network remainsformidable. Those were some of the conclusions expressed by threeex-marketers, now CEOs, giving advice on how to get promoted to thetop job at CUNA's annual Marketing & Business DevelopmentConference held last week in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. Thetrio, Teresa Y. Freeborn, president of the $732 million Xerox FCU,El Segundo, Calif.; Catherine Tierney, president of the $870million Community First CU, Appleton, Wis.; and Bob Schumacher,president, $47 million Snohomish County PUDCU, Everett, Wash., wereon a panel entitled, “Are You Ready for the Corner Office?”

“You already have a great skill–that power to communicate butyou also have to be constantly inquisitive, willing to try newthings, and give up your marketer's hat,” advised Tierney,confiding she didn't expect to be named CEO in 1993 thinking shewould be passed over by a seasoned vice president of lending.

But her “people skills” and finance brush-up won out.

Meanwhile, Freeborn, who took over the CEO job at Xerox lastSeptember from the more well-known William Cheney, nowpresident/CEO of the California/Nevada Credit Union Leagues,bluntly told the CUNA audience that apart from a positive attitude,females needed to play the male game, literally andfiguratively.

“Play golf,” joked Freeborn, stressing that her remark aboutwomen learning the sport was meant to be taken seriously.

Drawing from her own experience in market research andwillingness to change jobs, Freeborn suggested there are “plenty ofopportunities in this dynamic field and if one male-dominated boardturns you down, you can certainly look elsewhere.”

Freeborn, who formerly headed a CUSO and headed up the marketresearch function at Kinecta Credit Union before joining Xerox,said she works hard now at “hanging out with fellow CEOs” to watchhow they think, make decisions and manage.

She's learned also that a key trait of all CEOs is“self-confidence” and quoting from a self-help management book,CEOs are also “gutsy, a little wild, humorous, a tad theatrical andgood storytellers.”

These are all traits she says she now tries to practice atXerox, a CU, which like others in California and elsewhere, hasbeen in the economic doldrums for months.

“Of major appeal to me when I came on board was the good workthat my predecessor had done in the financial performance of thiscredit union,” she said.

While the CU has a capital ratio of 11.6%, her plans are toimprove ROA and to create “a new day” at her CU with an aggressiveexpansion program. “We're going to rock,” she quipped.

The Xerox board has agreed to focus on business development“like we had never before and the good news now” is that ROA willbe positive “before the end of the year,” she forecast.

The third member of the CEO panel at the CUNA conference,Schumacher of Snohomish CU in Washington State, said his yearstesting other careers including hotel management as well as CUmarketing provided the background he needed to take on the CEO jobfour years ago.

Emphasizing an understanding of finance and accounting, he said,“it's not so important that you do the numbers but that you knowthem.” And he suggested that as CEO, it is vital to work with a topstaffer with a finance background that you can rely on and “whomyou trust” to provide both good and bad news.

Like the other panelists, Schumacher agreed that “it's lonely atthe top” and that on personnel issues, “you can't be everybody'sbest friend.”

Responding to an audience question about the difficulty forex-marketing CEOs to stay clear of the marketing function,Schumacher urged simply, “Just let it go.”

Tierney said she had the same problem. “The minute I picked upone of our marketing brochures, I started to do red penciling”, butnow while she still does that practice silently she has let hermarketing successors do their job.

Freeborn said she is a firm advocate of an “open door policy,”which means not every staffer can pop into her office whenever theylike, but all employees can hear the discussions taking place. Inother words, there are no secrets as to how the CU isperforming.

Recalling her winning the job at Xerox, she told the CUNA panelaudience that after five years as the senior marketer of Kinecta,she applied for the CEO job there and lost.

“Frankly, the biggest strike against me was that I had not beenresponsible for my own P&L. Things changed when I took theopportunity to run our CUSO,” she recalled.

“And then, a miracle happened. Dave Chatfield, who is a legendin this industry, retired from CCUL and Bill Cheney, the then CEOof Xerox got the CCUL job and a guy who is doing wonderful in thatposition,” she said.

Based on contacts she made during a CUNA GAC conference, she wasasked to submit her name, survived a very rigorous recruitmentprocess, and landed the job in September of 2006.

One other piece of advice she gave to the CUNA group: “becomfortable with imperfect data–you'll never have time to assembleeverything you'll need to make a decision about which markets toenter, which projects to support, which vendors to hire, whichproducts and services to offer.”

“We simply don't have the time these days and a failure todecide and act quickly can pre-empt options altogether,” sheconcluded. –[email protected]