Pete Snyder to Become Kinecta FCU's CUSO President, Brings 30 Years of Experience to Role

"Pete Snyder brings a wealth of expertise to Kinecta," said Simone Lagomarsino, president/CEO of Kinecta FCU and CEO of Kinecta Financial Management Co. "Pete's nearly three decades of serving the financial community, both within credit unions and as head of his consulting company, reinforces Kinecta's commitment to providing its members with a best-in-class experience."

Prior to forming SCS, Snyder was chief operating officer at $1.8 billion Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union and was president of its CUSO, Addison Avenue Financial Partners.

Snyder said that current SCS projects and the industry initiatives the firm has put in place will continue with the complete commitment of KFMC, this includes a collaborative initiative with Callahan & Associates Inc. to provide credit unions with their own investment and insurance benchmarking tools on an ongoing basis. SCS will not be conducting any new business, Snyder said. All of the firm's templates, scorecards and tools will be moved into Kinecta's CUSO, which will undergo a name re-branding for the consulting arm that is expected to roll out by March.

"The strategic vision for [KFMC] is to continue serving members of [Kinecta], and to expand its offerings for the industry in being able to serve other credit unions," Snyder said. "Within the Kinecta environment, the consulting division will expand its current scope of services to include brokerage and insurance recruiting and training. At Kinecta Financial Management Company, we are looking forward to collaborating with other credit unions and contributing to the overall success of our industry for all of our members."

Snyder said the industry rarely sees benchmarking tools for insurance and investment programs. In the past, credit unions have relied on "banking only" tools, which are "very hard to adapt to the credit union model."

Meanwhile, Snyder attended Kinecta's strategic planning session in December in a consulting role. There, he was privy to the CUSO's plans as well as the credit union's finance, marketing and retail goals. Within the development of the five-year plan for the financial institution is elevating the CUSO to "best in class" in all areas.

"We don't just want to preserve businesses that are there, we want to grow them," Snyder explained.

One of those initiatives is the Jumpstart campaign, Lagomarsino said. January is typically a slow month for most credit unions, but Kinecta wanted to get a head start so it developed a 120% targeted level for its budget. Kinecta has also reached to its past to honor those members that have been with the credit union for 20 or more years with product and service incentives through its Kinecta Hughs Gold Elite program. Founded in 1940, Kinecta originally served employees at the Hughes Aircraft Company. Since Kinecta Financial & Insurance Services is now a registered broker/dealer, it can continue to move forward offering assistance to smaller credit unions that may not have the size or infrastructure to run their own programs, according to Lagomarsino. It's one form of help that's near and dear to Snyder.

"My direct love is working with credit unions and their programs," he said. "Simone has laid the groundwork. There are more credit unions stepping up to the collaborative model of working together. We need scale in our business whether it's on the loan and deposit side or insurance and investment side." –msamaad@cutimes.com