GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- Having the ability to see thefinancial marketplace over a 25-year span from credit union,banking, cooperative, investment, commercial lending, informationtechnology and research perspectives has shaped Judy Sandberg'szeal in bringing the message of collaboration as the true means tocompete.

Sandberg is senior vice president of strategic direction ofGateway Services Group, LLC, a CUSO providing investment andinsurance program management and consulting to credit unions. FromMay 2005 to May of this year, she also served as interim COO ofNACUSO and currently holds a seat on the NASCUS Board. Sandbergbegan her career in commercial lending and credit administrationwith Norwest. Her experience also includes an investment manager atITT Finance, president of NCB Retail Finance, a subsidiary formedto securitize small business loans and later founded and headed thecompany's NCB Investment Advisors, a registered advisory firm.

"One of the funny things on how my career has progressed tendedto be driven by people I've met that have a strong commitment toproviding value to clients," Sandberg said. "I've always tried tobring laser focus on clients--for my career, it's been creditunions."

Sandberg's initial exposure to credit unions came through the 13years she spent at National Cooperative Bank where she led thebank's largest commercial lending division. While there, she workedwith a newly-formed client, CUNA Mortgage, securing financingdeals. At NCB Retail Finance from 1994 to 1998, Sandberg helped todesign small business loans created by cooperatives, includingcredit unions and CUSOs, to be the first securitization vehiclesfor credit unions at the time. Wall Street had never been familiarwith asset classes of small business loans back then, she pointedout. NCB also helped to create an "exit strategy" for those loans,a move that opened the gate for strides the industry is seeingnow.

When Sandberg started to see that many of NCB's borrowers hadreached a saturation point and were in need of an investmentalternative, she and a colleague pitched a proposal to form NCBInvestment Advisors. In 1993, the firm launched to provideinstitutional advisory services to banks. Over a two-year period,assets went from zero to $100 million.

"We had to figure out things as we went. It was a wonderfullearning experience," Sandberg recalled.

It was her time at Callahan & Associates where she served aspresident of the Trust for Credit Unions, a family of mutual fundsand oversaw the CUSO, owned by 40 credit unions, that exposed herto just how innovative the core group was in bringing new productsto market. She describes Callahan CEO Chip Filson as the "mostintelligent man I ever worked with."

"All the raw data that came in every quarter from NCUA, Chipwould go through and analyze it," Sandberg said. "His ability tosee trends and connections--he's been committed to credit unionshis entire career."

When Sandberg came to Gateway, one of the challenges she saw wasaging members and the lack of financial services available forthem. Investment and retirement planning became an absolute andimmediate service the CUSO set forth on providing.

"Not a lot of credit unions knew how to do it," Sandberg said."It represents a huge opportunity for credit unions. It was anopportunity for me to take this message [forward] because [the lackof investment and retirement planning] is a problem."

At NACUSO, Sandberg said it's important to spread the messagethat CUSOs have the ability to pull resources, create scale whilestill giving credit unions the room to maintain their communitypresence. Now a staunch advocate, she said the cooperative model iswhat she will "believe [in] forever." Publicizing how credit unionsare collaborating with CUSOs continues to be an "awareness issue,"adding the industry has made "tremendous strides."

On paper, it appears collaboration can help credit unions bringservices and products to members and match up with biggercompetitors, but how effective is it in countering so-called"hostile takeover" attempts? Sandberg believes it can go far, but"you have to be in the game first."

"I wasn't particularly enthused by the methods," Sandberg saidon how Wings Financial Federal Credit Union pursued a merger withContinental Federal Credit Union. "If the net result is it causescredit unions to revive local competitiveness in the marketplace,that's a good thing."

With 25 years of experience to back it up, Sandberg said, "onething I've learned about working with credit unions, they need tobe providing what everyone else is providing."

"Just being a credit union or a cooperative is not going tocause someone to choose you if you're not priced appropriately,"Sandberg said.

Sandberg is a voracious fan of car racing. Her family has beenfans "forever and forever" and for a brief time, Sandberg was anamateur racer of Formula One cars. Born in North Dakota and raisedall over the Midwest, she currently lives in Washington with herhusband and son.

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