If you are reading this, you're probably a credit union advocate (and possibly even a member of The Cooperative Trust), so you know just how important it is that credit unions win the war for talent. Developing, growing and nurturing future leaders within our industry is imperative to our long-term success. That is just as true at Filene as it is at natural person credit unions.
In that light, I’m excited to share with you that as of July 10, we have a new leader of The Cooperative Trust, Lauren Culp. Lauren’s creative mind, spirited curiosity and passion for the future of credit unions is going to help us take the Trust to the next level. She has an extensive credit union background with a history of working with Filene through Crash the GAC and participating in i3. We are honored to have her join the team.
I know many of you may be wondering, what about James? Filene has been honored to have leaders of The Cooperative Trust that give tremendous gifts. Our early days when the effort was called “30 under 30” were led by Ben Rogers. Brent Dixon shaped The Cooperative Trust as we hosted our first “Crash.” James helped evolve the Trust and ensure it was sustainable and growing. Each one of these individuals breathed life into this community and helped it to grow even further.
However, leading The Cooperative Trust is not a lifetime role. As Dr. Seuss said, “Oh the Places We’ll Go.” James will be continuing on with Filene and in the near term will still be playing an active role in leading the transition of the Trust with Lauren. The knowledge transfer and positioning for success will take some time and Lauren and James are excited to work together on this. From there, when the time is right, James has a great “place to go” continuing at Filene in moving our impact body of work forward once that transition is complete.
We are so honored that you are a part of this community. Through this transition Filene is committed to the future of The Cooperative Trust and we are excited to see how we can grow the mentorship program, enhance and engage credit unions to take action on building their young adult strategies through our Young Adult Advisory programming and continue to engage both online through our about to be newly refreshed website and offline through Crashes. None of this work would be possible without you, the community. Stay engaged, continue to get involved and create impact. The future of credit unions is bright.
Lauren's first Crash event is already in the works -- it's a really unique one-day opportunity to innovate with Visa in San Francisco this August. You're invited to attend, so check it out! If you'd like to get in touch or send a note of congratulations, you can leave a comment here or send Lauren an email.