The Future of Credit Unions Depends on the Next Generation of Leaders

Source: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

The Cooperative Trust and Crash program has been around for nearly 11 years. In the last decade, we’ve witnessed the evolution and growth of this community with an increase in community reach and impact – we have nearly 2,000 online community members and brought 231 emerging leaders to industry conferences in 2019. We’ve seen organizational changes and reaped the benefits of the leadership of Brent Dixon, James Marshall and Lauren Culp, who, through their collective efforts, have made The Cooperative Trust (The Trust) a self-funded program at Filene Research Institute. And through all of this change, the talent we’ve seen come through The Trust and Crash program has continued to thrive. We see past Crashers and Trust leaders moving into chief and executive positions at an ever-increasing frequency; a trend we only expect to continue.

Having been with Filene for two and a half years, I’ve traveled to many conferences, and one of my favorite activities during a networking break is to ask people what they know about Crashers or The Trust. I find it interesting that The Trust and Crash has been around for a decade, and there still seems to be confusion about what these programs are, and why they are so vital to the credit union industry.