I'd like to extend a hearty thanks to Tom Greve, who has servedas Credit Union Times publisher for more than four years. It cameas a surprise when he announced internally that he was leaving. Iknow how much he has enjoyed working within the credit unioncommunity–or “movement” as he likes to call it–and particularlystrategizing his verticals with the team at Credit UnionTimes.

Tom has been an asset to our publication. He came to us as thefinancial services and publishing industries were simultaneouslygoing over a cliff, and he handled the sales side with an experthand that helped guide our business through the crisis and weatherthe storm better than many others in the publishing industry. Hecontributed fresh ideas and techniques to improve our publication.I knew right away he could sell an electric blanket to thedevil.

Tom's business acumen and his “Have a(nother) margarita, Sarah”will be missed.

A Farewell to Larry

Credit unions last month lost a credit union lifer in LarryWilson, who retired as president/CEO of Coastal FCU in N.C. Friendsand colleagues attended his retirement reception during NAFCU'sannual conference last week.

I got to know Larry during his service on the NAFCU board. Whatimpresses me the most is, after he led the then $3.5 million IBMRaleigh Employees FCU with its three employees and 3,900 members tobecome the $2 billion Coastal FCU with 190,000 members and 400employees, he's still a very real person. You will be missed. Andwatch out for copperheads.

A Farewell to Inequality

NAFCU held its first Women's Leadership Summit, which CreditUnion Times participated in by virtue of our Women to Watch program. As many ofyou already know or at least suspect, the majority of credit unionCEOs are women, a study commissioned by Burns-Fazzi, Brock found.However, the number of female top execs drops dramatically as youclimb the asset ladder. Of the 428 federal credit unions sampled,176 had less than $40 million in assets and 65% of their CEOs werewomen. However, as you peer over $40 million, that percentageplummets in half to approximately one-third. In fact, in the morethan $335 million in assets category, the sample size of femaleexecutives (18) was so small as to be inconclusive with regard tothe salary portion.

The survey found that female credit union CEOs at the creditunions under $20 million were paid 93% of their male counterparts.Between $20 million and $75 million it was 95%. Not perfect, butnot bad. A curious flip-flop occurs however in the $75 million to$335 million range: These female CEOs actually earned 107% of theirmale counterparts. However, then you look at the upper echelons(more than $335 million in assets), the figure was just 82%.

Some variables weren't accounted for in the survey such as yearsof service that could help explain the disparity in salary figuresat the top.

Nan Siemer,head of Breakers consulting firm, who facilitated the event alsoprovided a piece of the puzzle that women might be missing, andthat is the art of negotiation. Among her tips for negotiating wasto negotiate base on worth, not need, and for women it may beeasier to think of it as bargaining rather than self-promotion.

McKinsey and Co., which advocates for the promotion of women inbusiness, has found that the top companies that score the bestacross nine key organizational areas, including leadership andaccountability, have the highest operating margins and three ormore women among their senior management for those companies thatmade gender information available.

Lloyds found that female employees are 8% more likely to meet orexceed performance expectations, yet they tend not to apply forpromotion. Obviously, there are many good reasons that might be,but very often it's because we are uncomfortable withself-promotion.

Having qualified women in key roles is good for business, sostart those mentor programs and teach and practice networkingskills early and often. An important piece is not to exclude themen. Not only do they hold the bulk of the authority, but they dohave a lot of knowledge and experience to contribute. Now is theperfect time because by 2016, 20% of the working population will beat least 65 and we need to be ready to step up in their place.