The board of directors for the $132 million St. Paul Federal Credit Union is throwing a party for its new president/CEO, Thomas A. Glatt Sr., on Wednesday to introduce him to members who may not know him as well as the credit union industry does.

Glatt gained recognition as the first president/CEO of the nation's first virtual cooperative, REALTORS Federal Credit Union, which aimed to serve the nation's one million real estate agents, but only grew to serve 7,800 members.

Just three years after the money-losing credit union opened its doors on the web in the spring of 2009, it merged with the $2.8 billion Northwest Federal Credit Union in Herndon, Va., in May 2012.

Glatt's party announcement at the St. Paul, Minn.-based cooperative was posted on the Minnesota Credit Union Network's website, however his CEO appointment appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal in May.

Glatt replaced Theresa L. Malone who left in September 2014 to become president/CEO of the Associated Healthcare Credit Union in St. Paul.

When Glatt resigned from his CEO post at REALTORS FCU in Rockville, Md., on Aug. 1, 2010, he called it very bittersweet, and noted, “We've done something here that has never been done before. We opened a virtual credit union in the worst economic time.”

Glatt said he left REALTORS FCU to join his wife who moved to New Jersey for a new job. Glatt and his wife launched a credit union management consulting firm, Centellect Consulting LLC, which is based in Las Vegas, Nev., according to Glatt's LinkedIn page. He worked as a principal at Centellect for four years and 11 months.

A few weeks after he left REALTORS FCU, it was revealed that Glatt voluntarily surrendered the keys to a 4,000-square-foot Sedona, Ariz., desert estate and in the process walked out on a nearly $1 million mortgage loan from his former employer, Continental Federal Credit Union.

According to Yavapai County records obtained by CU Times, Glatt and his wife, Diane Johnson, filed a “Special Warranty Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure” on the property located at 25 Veritas Drive in April 2010.  The balloon mortgage, financed by Continental FCU, was due in full in December 2009. The county records do not state the principal amount remaining.

Glatt gained popularity in the spring of 2007 when he helped lead the since-merged Continental FCU, which was embroiled in what some considered the industry's first credit union-to-credit union hostile takeover attempt by the $4.1 billion Wings Financial Federal Credit Union in Apple Valley, Minn.

The NCUA eventually intervened, stating a $200 payment by Wings Financial to woo Continental members was impermissible under the Federal Credit Union Act.

Glatt was also named the 2007 Credit Union Times CEO of the Year. NAFCU also bestowed the honor on him that same year.

In addition to holding senior management credit union positions, he served for 16 years as president of Counter Intelligence Associates, a firm founded by his wife.