When your CEOs serve an average of 25 years, some people mightworry about a lack of fresh blood and new ideas.

Others might take the approach of Penn State football coach JoePaterno: If we're winners, why change?

On Jan. 1, Tom Johnson became only the fourth CEO in the 76-yearhistory of Spokane Teachers Credit Union. He replaced SteveDahlstrom, who retired after 30 years at STCU, including 20 yearsas president/CEO. Presidents prior to Dahlstrom were Clare Chapman(1969-1991) and Ernie McElvain (1934-1965).

Johnson acknowledged that when he was on the board of STCU, hepondered the issue of CEO turnover.

“Certainly those thoughts went through my mind when I sat on theboard,” he recalled. “I think the telling tale is really thesuccess of the credit union. If it were not as successful, onewould have to step back and question the business model. But if youlook back over the history of this organization, it has doneremarkably well, particularly in these past two years when we'vegone through this recession period. Last year we grew between 8%and 9%. The prior couple years we were growing at a rate of20%.”

While educators are no longer the majority of STCU's members,they are still the largest single occupational group in the fieldof membership. The credit union can trace its roots to Lewis andClark High School, where the credit union's original office was anEnglish teacher's classroom.

“Washington State has a progressive approach to chartering,”Johnson explained. “As the state expanded its charter provisions,we moved right along with that. About 10 or 12 years ago the boardadopted a statewide charter. So we have our roots in education butare now a community charter credit union.”

Johnson brings to his new job strong background in both financeand education. On the financial side, he's a CPA with a bachelor'sdegree in business and industrial administration from theUniversity of Illinois in Urbana and an MBA from ClarksonUniversity in Potsdam, N.Y. In addition to serving on the STCUboard of directors from 1994 through 2006, he became vicepresident/administration in 2006 and was promoted to executive vicepresident early in 2010.

His credentials in education include vice president for businessaffairs at Whitworth University, an appointment to the WashingtonHigher Education Facilities Authority and service on the SpokanePublic Schools diversity advisory committee.

The board also retains a strong connection to the educationcommunity. Johnson estimates that a majority of the 13 boardmembers have background in public schools.

Such first-hand insight into the needs of teachers may provehelpful in anticipating member requirements as the state wrestlesto overcome a $6 billion budget shortfall projected for the nexttwo-year budget cycle.

“The State of Washington, which funds most K-12 educationexpense, is struggling. Our legislators are just returning toOlympia. Funding for education has been cut in the last coupleyears as the state has struggled to balance its budget, andfrankly, just because of the magnitude of the state's budgetchallenge, it's likely more severe cuts are coming,” Johnsonpredicted.

In addition to teachers, employment levels for police,firefighters, state employees, public university faculty and staffand others will be threatened, “and that will be a challenge for agood portion of our membership base.”

Johnson believes he has brought from his other jobs skills inworking with people. The credit union, he noted, is a high-service,high-touch institution.

“We believe training our staff, and treating our staff well,translates into our staff treating our members well,” he said. “Wespend more per member than the typical credit union, and that'spart of our secret sauce. I think what I have brought to this roleis a strong sense and understanding of that. I have spent most ofmy career working in nonprofits, so I understand the culture ofnonprofit businesses. Our management team and our directors have tomodel for our employees what it means to be good to each other andwhat it means to be good to our members.”

He indicated his service on the board gave him an understandingof the STCU culture. Being on the board also helped him developone-on-one relationships with the management team and offered achance to observe first-hand the kind of systems and programs thatare in place.

“I knew from being on the board that this was a specialorganization in terms of how they treat people and their focus ondoing the right thing for the member. Some of that shows up in afront-line situation where a teller or an MSR is working with amember on their particular problem,” Johnson said.

Given that positive assessment, Johnson doesn't anticipate majorshifts in the direction the credit union has taken. The board'sjudgment is that things are going well, and the idea is to build onthat success rather than introduce an outside factor.

In fact, when the board began its search for a new CEO, theconsultant STCU retained was advised that the board wanted to lookinternally. If there wasn't anyone already on board, only thenwould the consultant be asked to look outside STCU.

That doesn't mean there are no changes. The online bankingplatform, bill-pay system and authentication system have beenrevamped. By the end of March the credit card program will beconverted. Perhaps the biggest change will be a conversion to a newcore computer system.

What role does Johnson see for a CEO in such changes?

“You have to be a leader,” he answered. “You have to be out infront of your people, painting a picture they can understand. Whyare we making this change? You have to motivate them to do thetraining we will all receive during the next several months. Theyhave to know how to deal with the member who gets caught in thechange and either for personal reasons doesn't like the impact orfor technical reasons has problems.”

He also sees a need for the CEO to motivate the board as theirtask becomes more complicated.

“The amount of time our volunteers invest is sobering,” hedeclared.