working mom, CFO, community choice credit union

Kelli Wisner-Frank described herself as a run-of-the-mill working mom.

She ferries her two daughters, Helena, 7, and Madalyn, 9, to soccer games and dance classes. She's also expecting a third child – gender yet to be determined – in April.

She even likes to bake.

“I am mostly self-taught, but I have taken one cake decorating class,” Wisner-Frank said. “As long as they taste good, it doesn't matter if they're sitting a little crooked.”

Wisner-Frank, 40, also serves as CFO of the $536 million Community Choice Credit Union, based in Farmington Hills, Mich.

Crooked cakes notwithstanding, strong professional discipline characterizes this working mom, whose successes are anything but run of the mill.

Her efforts to help CCCU grow and better serve its southeastern Michigan communities earned her the CU Times 2015 Trailblazer Award as CFO of the Year title.

Wisner-Frank said her personal philosophy of honesty, integrity and hard work are attributes that occupy both her personal and professional lives.

“It's integrity, first and foremost,” Wisner-Frank said. “I have found it essential that reputation for integrity, compassion and generally being nice are often underrated. And yet, they are more important in both the work and personal environments than they are given credit for.”

A native of Sterling Heights, Mich., Wisner-Frank lived in the Detroit area most of her life, earning an accounting degree from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and an MBA from Walsh College in Troy, Mich.

After spending a year in California, she returned to the Detroit area with her boyfriend-turned-husband Christopher Frank to pursue both a life and career.

In 2001, Wisner-Frank didn't know anything about credit unions when she answered an ad for an accounting manager at the then $200 million Research Federal Credit Union in Warren, Mich.

Her admiration for the industry kicked in shortly after she was hired.

“Within six months, I thought I would never leave credit unions,” she said. “I admired the camaraderie and the fact that if I had questions, I could walk to the credit union down the street and get answers.”

By 2004, Wisner-Frank was promoted to director of finance at RFCU, a position she described as CFO without the title. She moved into the CFO role in 2005, but stepped back from the position in 2007 when RFCU merged with CCCU.

“I was pregnant with my second child and wanted a little time,” she recalled. “Community Choice already had a CFO, so I became controller, working three days a week for two years. It was the best time in my life because I had the best of both worlds.”

In 2009, the CFO left the organization and Wisner-Frank returned full time to the position.

In addition to readjusting to a full-time schedule, she said the biggest challenge in shifting from controller back to CFO was focus, she said.

“As controller, you're concerned about the month-end closing, but as a CFO you have to look forward and think strategically, rather than historically,” she explained. “As a controller, you spend your life in checks and balances and know every day whether you're doing a good job,

“As CFO, things seem a little more loose, and if the CEO wants to add five more branches next year, you have to determine when and if that's possible.”

In the five years since her return, Wisner-Frank has successfully readapted to the CFO's role. Her list of achievements portrayed an evolving talent and a mature approach that helped her institution grow.

Wisner-Frank improved CCCU's net worth position from a low of 6.84% in 2009 to the current position of 10.71%.

Michigan's high recession-era unemployment rate and subsequent high loan charge-offs plagued the credit union's net worth ratio and negatively affected the bottom line.

“Our goal in 2009 was to concentrate on operational efficiencies and cut expenses where we could so we could ride out the recession,” Wisner-Frank said. “We felt strongly that if we could make changes that were in our control, we would be in a great position to grow with the economy when it improved. And it worked.”

The CFO also implemented a net worth adequacy plan that is included as part of the credit union's annual strategic planning efforts.

The senior management team was divided into five teams of two, and each was given the task of assessing risk in the areas of credit, interest rates, liquidity, earning power, growth, technology and general business risk.

“Our risk analysis focused primarily on how we rank against our peers, our recent trends and assessments of our local economy,” Wisner-Frank wrote in her summary of the plan for board members and management staff.

The credit union's overall risk-based net worth position, which started at the 6% adequately capitalized level, ended at 9.2% after the exercise, she said. The additional cushion was necessary to cover risks specifically associated with CCCU, according to the report.

Wisner-Frank also helped design and implement CCCU's GetBigReward$ program, which promotes multi-product integration while rewarding the members with increased dividends.

In February 2014, CCCU paid out more than $886,000 in dividends to members participating in the 2013 program. The amount increased to $1.2 million in program credits for 2014, as well as $266,000 in interest rebates on qualified loans, she said.

In October 2013, CCCU merged with the former $17.6 million Rome Credit Union, based in Royal Oak, Mich., a move that further challenged Wisner-Frank's role in maintaining stable operations and a seamless transition of existing assets, staff and operations.

But that was just the beginning.

Along with the credit union's branch purchase from Troy, Mich.-based $105 million PAC Federal Credit Union, a transfer that will be completed in March, the merger will boost the number of CCCU's member centers to 10.

If all that weren't enough, in March, the members of $97 million NuPath Community Credit Union in Wyandotte, Mich., will vote on a proposed merger with CCCU.

If it occurs, the merger will add three more member centers to CCCU's list, with a fourth destined to open in Shelby Township, Mich., in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Continued rapid-fire growth will make for a busy spring for the credit union and its CFO, but the changes will be all in a day's work for Wisner-Frank, who has learned to thrive on the type of positive energy that plays directly into her personal life and work philosophies.

“My life philosophy is similar to my work philosophy,” Wisner-Frank said, “and I hope to pass on to my children the core ideals of the honesty, integrity and hard work necessary to accomplish your own goals and make a greater contribution to society.”

That advice will also apply to Wisner-Frank's baby, due April 27, and just in time for the next phase in CCCU's growth and development.

Instant Insights /

Trailblazer Awards: Wisner-Frank Values Integrity, Hard Work

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