BALTIMORE – There are folks who have worked in credit unionstheir entire professional life, but Mike Beall can boast creditunions were a part of his life even when he was a kid. In fact, itwould be accurate to say that credit unions are in the genes of thenew president/CEO of the Maryland Credit Union League. Beallstarted in his new position with the Maryland League Feb. 11. Hesucceeded former president/CEO Robert Steil whose contract was notrenewed by the MCUL Board in April 2003. The oldest of two sons,Beall, a native of White Plains, Md. in the southern part of thestate, was raised in a credit union family. His parents Donald andBarbara met when they worked at Agriculture FCU in Washington, D.C.as a collections officer and teller, respectively. They both wenton to work at NASA FCU which the father became president/CEO of. Hepassed away in 1991 and his mother has since retired from thecredit union. But the 37-year old Beall insists he “wasn't forcedto work in credit unions, I was just around them so much it was anatural fit for me.” He laughingly recalls that, “All our vacationsinvolved a credit union conference. I've been to the (CUNA) GACaround 25 times, and I'm not that old.” Beall didn't wait until hegraduated from the University of Richmond with a Doctor ofJurisprudence degree to work in the credit union industry. While inschool, he interned in CUNA's regulatory affairs department withKathleen Thompson, svp/associate general counsel, federalcompliance and legislative analysis. When he graduated in 1991, heworked for Commonwealth One FCU as legal counsel. In 1996, he leftto work at the North Carolina Credit Union League withthen-president/CEO Larry Johnson as vice president of governmentaffairs. “My first day on the job was the day the injunctionblocking federal credit unions from taking in new groups went in toeffect. Talk about a welcome,” says Beall. Four years later, hewent to work for the World Council of Credit Unions as manager ofgovernment affairs and partnerships, and was responsible forrepresenting WOCCU before Congress on legislative issues, andhelping to secure a continued funding mechanism for microenterprise development for the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment. Beall also worked on developing partnerships betweenU.S. credit union leagues and overseas projects. There arecurrently 15 of those projects that are active now. “Before Istarted working at World Council, I had done volunteer work forthem in Suriname, so I had a sense of what the organization wasabout,” said Beall. “I hope during my time there I reached out toU.S. credit unions and was able to help them better understand whatthe World Council is all about.” Beall's father was also part ofthe first technical team WOCCU sent to Poland. His family alsohosted WOCCU folks at their home, “so that was an interesting bug Icaught early on about credit unions,” he said. Beall's four yearsat WOCCU not only gave him international credit union experienceand the opportunity to travel worldwide – he represented WOCCU onevery continent and visited Australia, Belize, Bulgaria, Grance,Kenya, Korea, Macedonia, the Philippines, Suriname, Trinidad andTobago, Uzbekistan, and Zambia on behalf of WOCCU – it also let himgain a perspective of the U.S. through the eyes of the people hemet and talked with overseas. “America is a very strange place topeople abroad,” said Beall. “People often ask me what is the mostunique place I've ever been, and I tell them it's the United Statesbecause in many ways we're not like the rest of the world. “Peopleoverseas look at us and try to figure out why we do what we do.Americans don't travel around enough, they're very isolated. Theonly news we get from stations like CNN about what's happeningabroad is how it impacts us. That ends up giving us the impressionthat unless Americans are affected, then it's not news. Americansdon't understand the arrogance that's attributed to us because wedon't view ourselves that way. Most Americans have traveled nofarther than to Canada or the Caribbean and that's mostly toresorts for vacations. Americans are the type of pop in-pop outtype of travelers. But the real news in countries happens outsidethe resorts.” Beall said he was never nervous traveling overseas onbehalf of WOCCU. “There are always risks when you travel overseas,but we did a good job of calculating those risks and preparing forthem,” he explained. But of course simply not traveling outside theU.S. is no sure protection from possible terrorist attacks. Byexample, Beall returned to his WOCCU office in Washington, D.C.just two days before 9-11 when one of the United Airlines planesslammed in to the Pentagon Building. Ironically, Beall had justreturned from a trip to Kenya which itself had been the site of aterrorist bombing in 1998 of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. Bealllearned a lot about the international credit union system from hiswork at WOCCU. Most countries, he said, don't have well-developedcredit union laws or regulations or a lot of oversight of creditunion operations. This is one area WOCCU has focused on, he said.“In the U.S., credit unions sometimes complain they're overregulated, but World Council sees situations overseas everydaywhere credit unions aren't regulated at all,” said Beall. He alsolearned something about himself – “I developed a love forshopping,” he said. Among some of his “many souvenirs” from hisWOCCU travels is a rug from Uzbekistan and two huge terra cottapots from the Philippines. Beall said being a league CEO isn'tsomething he aspired to even though “my path has been predictablefor me.” Instead, he explained, “It was an opportunity to be partof the advocacy effort for Maryland credit unions and to make theLeague a center spot for that.” Beall himself is a member of threecredit unions – Commonwealth One FCU, NASA FCU, and Navy FCU (hisgrandfather was career Navy.) Beall eventually plans to give up hisWashington, D.C. digs and move back to Maryland – “My mother willbe much happier that I'll be closer rather than somewhere halfwayaround the world,” he quipped. For now, he's focused on hisimmediate priorities for the Maryland Credit Union League. Numberone on his list is making sure the League is visibly representingcredit unions in Maryland. The League needs to be strong inrepresenting credit unions at the federal, state, and regulatorylevels, he said. Only around 8% of all the Maryland CUs arestate-chartered. He's also looking forward to working with MarylandCredit Union League's Mike Marschall, director of legislative,regulatory & government affairs who himself had been acontender for the president's spot. Beall said the two of them havecombined their efforts before – Marschall has met with Sen. PaulSarbanes (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housingand Urban Affairs Committee. Beall has conferred with the senatorsince he's also on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We're agreat team together. That's a great resource for Maryland's creditunions,” said Beall. [email protected]