Thomas Renz, president and chief development officer for the $32million Commodore Perry FCU, didn't decide to become an activistwhen he appealed the credit union's  2011 exam. Instead,the Credit Union Times 2013 Political Action TrailblazerAward winner contended that  he's always been one.

“One of my board members was a high school teacher of mine, andshe will attest to fact that I've been speaking my mind since oldenough to do so, for better or worse,” he said. “I've learnedthrough hard knocks that sometimes I need to have prudence. But tothe core, that's who I am.  For me, it stems from what'sright and wrong, and if it's right, it's worth fighting for.”

Challenging the NCUA certainly qualifies for a lesson in hardknocks, which is what Renz and Commodore Perry did when it appealedits exam results. Before Commodore Perry's appeal in 2012, only four appeals in the last 10 years had been elevated to theNCUA's Supervisory Review Committee, and in all four cases, the SRCruled in favor of the regulator.