This is my 20th anniversary in the industry as well and it's not lost on me just how little I knew about credit unions that first morning at First Entertainment Credit Union even though I'd been a member of a credit union since I was eight years old," said Roy MacKinnon, who is now vice president of marketing at First Entertainment CU.
"I remember when I got the job, it was my first corporate position, and I told friends, 'I'm a director of marketing at a credit union, which is a small bank.' I had no clue about the philosophy but it didn't take me long to learn and just become a fanatic of all things credit union," he added.
Right before he started, First Entertainment had $73 million in assets and had just completed a merger which doubled the credit union's assets overnight. "It was really a crash course for me," MacKinnon said.
"Operation Grassroots was also starting up and my CEO sent me to my first GAC conference. It is amazing to think back at how we and other credit unions were so small town even in a big city like Los Angeles and how much larger and more complex we've become. You could say the industry has grown up. I especially love it when you see a small credit union that launches for example its own iPhone app for remote deposit capture-that kind of innovation from a small organization gives me a lot of hope for the future of the industry."
