SAN DIEGO – Stan Hollen, who at age 19 was elected to a credit union board and who went on to lead Golden 1 Credit Union to become California's largest financial cooperative and one of the largest credit unions in the U.S., has received the prestigious Leo H. Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Credit Union League. The award, named after the father of the California credit union movement, recognizes a lifetime of excellence in credit union philosophy and contributions to the movement. Hollen received the award Nov. 19 during the league's annual meeting and convention here. Hollen, who joined Golden 1 in 1984, helped it grow into a powerful financial institution with $3.7 billion in assets and more than 450,000 members by the time he retired at the end of 2001. He is now president and chief executive officer of Liberty Enterprises. During his 17-year tenure as president and chief executive officer at Golden 1, he was credited with bringing innovative advances in lending and technology to the credit union. He also served as a mentor to his employees, with at least 13 of them having gone to head other credit unions. Hollen also helped create such entities as CU Mortgage Corp., Financial Service Centers Cooperative and CU Direct Lending. He is a former chairman of WesCorp and previously served on the governmental relations committee of both the league and CUNA. He was inducted into the CUES Hall of Fame earlier this month. Hollen was a strong supporter of smaller credit unions and donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Shapiro Group for technology-related grants. The Shapiro Group, founded in 1992 and named for attorney Leo H. Shapiro, is a cooperative effort to pool the resources of the credit union community to help small credit unions operate efficiently and effectively. Hollen said he was humbled by the award and had always strived to "put something back in the industry." "Yes, I was on the board of a credit union at age 19," he said in accepting the award. "I had no idea what that would foretell to the future. "It is an honor to be recognized by the league and to join a real elite group of people that have preceded me," he added. -

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