Patelco Credit Union President/CEO Ken Burns told CreditUnion Times on Monday that his decision to leave the $3.9billion credit union was amicable and merely reflects his desire toseek a new challenge.

“I looked at where I wanted to spend the next 10 years in thisindustry, and thought now was the ideal time to make that move,”said the 57-year-old executive. “My kids are grown and out ofcollege, so my wife and I could relocate if we wanted to. It's justan opportune time for me, and I'd be leaving the credit union ingood condition.”

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The board of the Pleasanton, Calif.-based institution came to anagreement in which Burns will leave “on a voluntary basis,”Chairman Peter Hanelt told Credit Union Times earlierMonday.

Patelco's financial condition has improved significantly underBurn's regime. Prior to his joiningPatelco in 2009, the credit union had reported a $58 million netloss in 2008 and had already lost $26 million in the first twoquarters of 2009.

Burns righted the ship with a net profit of $24.6 million in2010 and record profits of $55.5 million to end 2012.

Burns said the decision has nothing to do with Patelco's recentDistributed Denial of Service attacks.In fact, he said, he'll be joining four other credit union CEOs inWashington later this week at the Treasury Department toparticipate in an FBI briefing on the topic.

“We dealt with it extremely well, and I think we've positionedourselves as one of those go-to credit unions who understand thisthing is serious and it's not going away,” he said about the DDoSattacks.

Mid-July is when Burns said he expects to make thetransition. He'll stay longer if the board is unable torecruit a suitable replacement for the 247,000-member credit union,but he said he also is free to leave early if he finds the rightopportunity.

While he wants to remain a credit union CEO, Burns said he's notnecessarily looking to move up another asset class.

“I have the option to move to an organization that reallyentices me that may not be $3 billion,” he said.

Burns took over at Patelco in May2009. He had been CEO at the $1.3 billion Technology CreditUnion in San Jose, Calif.