RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In a move partly to bring consistency to its repertoire of CUSOs, Gerry Agnes has been promoted to president of Altura Credit Union, splitting duties with current CEO Mark Hawkins.
Agnes, who previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Altura, will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the CU and will continue to serve as a board member of the CUSOs. Hawkins, who had served as both president and CEO for 19 years, will remain CEO of the $821 million credit union and will have presidents of Altura's four CUSOs report directly to him. Hawkins will continue to serve on the boards of directors of the affiliate companies and report to the Altura board of directors.
Splitting the president and CEO roles is still fairly unique within the credit union industry, but Hawkins said this arrangement has been more than six years in the making. Altura's strategic plan back then only addressed the needs of the credit union and the one CUSO it had at the time, Auto Expert, a car buying service founded in 1993 under a different name and now serving a dozen other CUs. As Altura grew, it launched Patrion Insurance, Inc. in 2001, Patrion Mortgage, LLC in 2003 and Amerit Escrow, Inc. in January 2007. Each CUSO has its own president: Auto Expert headed by Jennifer Binkley; Patrion Insurance, Inc. headed by Mari Rezinas; Patrion Mortgage, LLC, and Amerit Escrow, Inc., both headed by David Constantino. Promoting Agnes to president of the CU was "just the next logical step" to create a consistent management pattern already in place with Altura's CUSOs. Agnes has seen the CU's inner workings from several different posts including as president of Altura Group, Inc., and of Patrion Insurance Services, Inc. He was in on the ground floor when the insurance and mortgage subsidiaries launched and was very instrumental in bringing both to profitability. Agnes will continue serving as a board member for Auto Expert, Patrion Mortgage, LLC, and Patrion Insurance, Inc.
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"We knew the role of the affiliate organizations would become larger and as that happened, they would require more leadership," Hawkins said. "We didn't want [leadership] to miss the responsibilities that came with that [growth]."
To be fair, Hawkins pointed out, Agnes was essentially acting in a "president" role even before he took the new role Jan. 1. The opportunity for professional growth as well as "deepening" Altura's "stable of talent" will help each CUSO president along with Hawkins to play more active parts in accountability and responsibility, Hawkins added. "Gerry does a great job and to not treat him like the other presidents, just didn't seem right to me," Hawkins said. Agnes likens his new role to his favorite professional basketball team, the Los Angeles Lakers when the all-star lineup included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and with Michael Cooper coming off the bench.
"Magic knew it best–as good as the team was, he said it wouldn't last forever so while it's there, relish it," Agnes said. "Mark is the ultimate CEO and I've worked for a few. We have a terrific team."
Along with the change at the top spot, Altura has also launched a new operational structure to establish enterprise-wide support for the following services: information services, strategic planning, risk management, quality, human resources and training, marketing and corporate communications, and accounting and finance. There will now be a production element, appropriately titled "producers," that report to Altura's four CUSOs. The "enablers" include the support staff that will report directly to Hawkins and provide support to the CUSOs. Agnes said going forward, the CU will continue to advance the quality of service in its delivery channels, expand its branch network and facets of its CUSOs. Industry wide, he is a proponent of collaborations with key organizations to ensure that Altura as well as other CUs remain viable.
"We want to continue to raise the bar for quality of service, Agnes said, adding that Altura has won several industry awards in this area. "We continue to equip our staff with the right tools. We've got a variety of black belts on our team." –[email protected]
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