The Texas Credit Union League said Thursday it has hired Tom Haider, a St. Paul consultant and former top compliance officer for MoneyGram International Inc., as its new top lobbyist.
Haider was named executive vice president for advocacy, succeeding Buddy Gill, the veteran lobbyist who in June joined NCUA under Chairman Debbie Matz as senior strategic communications and external relations adviser.
Haider, who starts with the Texas trade group later this month, “brings more than 25 years of advocacy experience in the financial services area” including internationally, to his new job directing the league’s government relations program, the TCUL said in a statement.
Haider, a lawyer, had previously shepherded legislation in multiple states and at the federal level as well as with the European Union’s Parliament.
He had been serving as a consultant for various Minnesota advocacy groups and as a director of Mature Voices Minnesota, a group serving seniors on health issues.
He previously had been senior vice president for MoneyGram International Inc. , the Dallas funds transfer firm, the league said, and prior to that for the Minnesota Credit Union League as its first in-house attorney.
Haider provided legal and regulatory compliance advice to the member credit unions and also ran that league’s government relations program before leaving after seven years to join MoneyGram.
Richard Ensweiler, president/CEO of the Texas league, also cited Haider’s management experience, including “leading a team of more than 100 employees spread across 12 countries that worked on government relations, compliance and ethics.”
