Van Ouwerkerk is new CEO of Travis CU; fourth woman CEO of a billion dollar CU

VACAVILLE, Calif. – Patsy Van Ouwerkerk, president/CEO of the $345 million Alliance CU, San Jose, and the current chairman of the California CU League, has been named president/CEO of the $1.1 billion Travis CU effective June 1. The top spot at Travis was left vacant after former president/CEO Bob Siravo departed to take the president/CEO job at WesCorp. Van Ouwerkerk, 51, is a seasoned credit union professional with over 24 years of experience. Her first credit union job came in 1975 at Coast Central Credit Union (then Coast FCU) in Eureka, California as a loan officer. In 1978 she joined The Golden 1 CU, Sacramento, as a loan processor. In the 15 years thereafter at The Golden 1 CU she moved up the ranks eventually into one of only two SVP positions the credit union had at the time. Van Ouwerkerk's fate in the game of love brought her out to California where she discovered credit unions. Born and raised in Wallace, North Carolina, a small town of about 1,500 people (about a 45 minute drive from Wilmington), Van Ouwerkerk stayed in North Carolina to attend college. She attended Campbell College in Buies Creek, N.C., where she majored in English/Journalism. She quit school in her third year to marry her husband John, who was attending college in San Jose. Both apparently had the media bug as Patsy majored in English/Journalism and John worked in broadcast journalism. "I was sports editor of my college paper. I thought I was going to become a sports editor," she said. But after just a few years in California Van Ouwerkerk found herself hooked by the credit union industry. "I love credit unions. They do good things and have a social responsibility that fits in terms of my own philosophy," she said. She credits her time at The Golden 1 CU, and the CU's former President/CEO Stan Hollen, for helping to shape her ability to lead a credit union. "One of the things that Stan did that turned out to be wonderful in terms of career development was give the SVPs exposure to areas that sometimes weren't our strongest areas," she said. Every couple of years Hollen would give Van Ouwerkerk a different functional area to oversee, which gave her a broad exposure to the CU's operations. Her core responsibilities as SVP at The Golden 1 included directing the operations of its, at that time, 26 branches, human resources, strategic planning, and oversaw the CU's two CUSOs. She would later meet Siravo when he was hired by The Golden 1 to become CEO of the CUSOs. Van Ouwerkerk learned a lot about growing fast at The Golden 1. It was just $100 million in assets when she arrived, ballooning to $1.3 billion by the time she left. "It really was a great place to grow up," she said. One of the reasons for The Golden 1 CU's growth spurt was getting approval to serve state employees throughout the state. Van Ouwerkerk joined Alliance as CEO in 1997, and put the credit union on an aggressive growth track. During her tenure, the CU's assets more than doubled from $162 million when she arrived, to $345 million today. Under Van Ouwerkerk, the credit union converted from a federal to state charter and gained the unique ability to serve three counties in California, as well as three counties in North Carolina. Alliance's primary FOM is General Electric. Over 25 years ago General Electric moved part of its operations from San Jose to Wilmington. Van Ouwerkerk said Alliance always served the employees of GE's plants in North Carolina, but it was difficult to serve family members since they couldn't come on site to the plants, spurring the CU to add three North Carolina counties. Alliance now has three branches in North Carolina and five in California. She was also very aggressive on the FOM front as president/CEO of the $215 million Columbia Community CU, Vancouver, Wash., where she served from 1993-1997 before going to Alliance. "We converted from a federal community charter to a state community charter in my second year there before the ABA suit. It gave us great ability in terms of FOM expansion, while other credit unions were dealing with some some of the membership issues," said Van Ouwerkerk. With her naming, Van Ouwerkerk becomes the fourth woman CEO of a billion dollar CU. (There is a fifth serving in an `acting' capacity who asked not to be named due to the status of the CU's executive search.) She said she's never let gender come into play in her employment decisions, and doesn't think it has affected her career, yet it's not lost on her that she is one of just a few women in these positions. "I'm honored to be with that group. I have never looked at gender in terms of who should get a promotion. It ought to be the best person for the job," she said. "At any of the credit unions I've been CEO, I've tried to be a strong mentor and good leader, giving both men and women opportunities." Van Ouwerkerk said she also recognizes that her not having a four-year college degree is probably unique among the large credit unions. (According to CUES, 52.6% of CEOs among all asset levels have a college degree.) "I'm one of a few individuals, lucky individuals, who has done well in terms of my career without having a college degree," she said. She emphasized that continuing education at her craft has and always will play a role in her career. She's gone through the CUES CEO Institute and has been working with the Western CUNA Management School for many years. "I continue to take classes and work hard to make sure that I'm always learning," she said. She also is a somewhat unique CEO in that she has served on the board of Alliance since becoming its CEO in 1997. "It does give you a little bit different perspective. I joke sometimes that I'm not supposed to vote. It's really worked well here," she said, noting that her predecessor at Alliance served on the board, and the board asked her to serve. Each CEO job Van Ouwerkerk has taken has been a step up in terms of assets, but she said that wasn't a factor with the Travis job. "It wasn't a motivation. It was a really good opportunity for me," she said, noting that she's already very familiar with Travis' board. The board has told her they want her to be very visible in the community, something she says she will embrace. Looking at hot-button industry topics, Van Ouwerkerk said one that she is very concerned about is credit unions' capital not being able to keep up with growth. "Certainly for fast-growing credit unions the whole issue of trying to find alternative sources of capital is a big issue on the national and state levels," she said. The California CU League, which she chairs, has been instrumental in getting Congressional movement on the issue. The Van Ouwerkerk's home in San Jose is about an hour and a half driving time from Vacaville so the couple, along with their nine-month golden retriever and their cat, will relocate to the Vacaville area. "I'm looking forward to it, and also looking forward to doing a good job here for my last month with the credit union," she said. -pgentile@cutimes.com