Calling his experience at First Technology Federal Credit Union“a terrific couple of years,” BensonPorter, the newly designated president/CEO of $9.7 billionBECU, said Tuesday the chance to return to his native Seattle andjoin “a vibrant organization like BECU” was a major factor in hisdecision to leave the $5 billion Palo Alto, Calif.-based CU,effective next April.

Porter, who served as the architect of a carefully choreographed2010 mega merger of California's Addison Avenue FCU, Palo Alto,Calif., and First Tech of Beaverton, Ore., told Credit UnionTimes the opportunity to move home represented a“once-in-a-lifetime chance to lead a larger organization with thequality, culture and community impact” of BECU.

BECU had started a nationwide search over a year ago when thecurrent long-time CEO, Gary Oakland, said he would be retiring inthe middle of 2012. A third-party search firm, which was notidentified, had been hired to find a replacement for Oakland andunanimously selected Benson this week, said a BECU spokesman.

Oakland, a past chairman of the Northwest Credit UnionAssociation, has headed BECU for 25 years and is credited withbuilding it into its present size. He joined BECU, formerly BoeingEmployees CU, in 1980 and became its CEO in 1986.

Porter, a former executive of Washington Mutual Savings Bank,which has since merged into Chase Bank, expressed regret at leavingFirst Tech but felt comfortable at moving on because the FirstTech-Addison Avenue merger integration was substantiallycomplete.

The merger, completed just a year ago, turned out to be thebiggest in CU history.

Porter said the First Tech board had expressed disappointment athis decision to leave but had been supportive.

To outsiders, the combination of the two giant California andOregon CUs at times appeared fraught with uncertainty and stressamidst fears members or regulators might reject the mergerapplication. Since the merger, First Tech, said Porter, hasexperienced “strong membership and financial results with memberexperience scores returning to pre-merger levels.”

According to Porter, Hank Sigmon, First Tech's chief financialofficer, will become interim CEO upon his departure. In themeantime, a search to fill the permanent slot will be undertaken byO'Rourke & Associates, he said.

Porter, who said he “grew up in Washington and now really looksforward to coming home,” had previously spent years at AddisonAvenue in Palo Alto prior to its merger with First Tech.