Jeff Russell may have started working with credit unions as a college freshman simply because the position at The Members Group paid better than food service, but the president/CEO of TMG Financial Services has since become credit unions' biggest advocate.

"I didn't know anything about credit unions when I started, even though I walked past one of the largest credit unions in Iowa everyday when I was in junior high school," said Russell. "Most of what I work on is new product development, developing new business models, identifying growth opportunities and how to help credit unions grow in the competitive financial marketplace. It's exciting because there are no typical days when it's about what the future will look like or the next thing."

Russell encourages credit unions to use the economy's challenges as a reason to go out and build membership by selling the credit union advantage. For him the fun has been finding ways around, over, or through obstacles and constantly challenging the default thinking to develop unique and innovative solutions to advance the credit union industry.