CEO Onboarding: Jenny Vipperman, ORNL FCU

Jenny Vipperman brought with her a lot of executive experience when she joined ORNL Federal Credit Union ($3.4B, Oak Ridge, TN) as its president and CEO on Oct. 1 this year.

Succeeding Collin Anderson, who retired after serving as CEO for the past eight years, Vipperman now is using experience and insights gained from nearly 17 years in the industry, plus the support and insight of her own new team, to navigate the learning curve from the corner office.

Vipperman came to East Tennessee from North Florida, where she was chief lending officer at VyStar Credit Union ($11.7B, Jacksonville, FL) for the past five years. Her prior assignments include senior lending positions at Chartway Federal Credit Union ($2.7B, Virginia Beach, VA), Tower Federal Credit Union ($2.5B, Laurel, MD), and Apple Federal Credit Union ($4.3B, Fairfax, VA).

In her five years at VyStar, Vipperman created proprietary lending programs to serve the underserved and managed growth of more than $4 billion in the overall lending portfolio. She also headed the credit union’s CUSO and served on the board of two credit union fintechs.

Here, Vipperman reflects on what she’s learned so far in the onboarding process.

Is it important to establish authority as a new CEO?

Jenny Vipperman:  I don’t feel a need to establish authority. Instead, I want to communicate a vision everyone can connect with through personal values or our mission as a member-owned cooperative. That way we can focus on our future together in greater alignment.

That takes creating a psychological safe space. There’s been stability here for a long time, and there can be some fear along with excitement with this kind of change. I’m focused on shortening that period of uncertainty so everyone can focus on the vision and mission we have for growth and for member service.

How important is it to hear the truth?

JV: In a leadership role, it’s crucial to surround yourself with individuals who are comfortable telling you the truth. People naturally want to please the boss and tell them how great they are and might hesitate to disagree or deliver unpleasant information. It’s important to create a safe space where people feel comfortable voicing their opinions and assisting in decision-making.

Everyone has a little bit of an ego. It’s nice to hear that praise, but that can make it too easy to believe everything is going well, so you must actively seek out different perspectives.

Now that I’m in this role, I realize the importance of this kind of transparency. I knew it before, I’ve supervised hundreds of employees and billions of dollars in business, but now that I’m in the CEO role, I can see it even more clearly.

What’s the difference between being in a leadership role and being the CEO?

JV: When I was just starting to think about the next step in my career, I had a team that had grown to around 500 employees, like a nice-sized credit union on our own. At the time, I thought the size of the responsibility was commensurate with the size of the organization.

Then I talked to great CEOs and other mentors and friends, and one of the key things they shared with me was that the CEO makes the ultimate decisions for every part of the organization. The weight of that is the same regardless of the size of the credit union.

Most of us are in the middle when it comes to institution size, and we all need to see the whole situation instead of concentrating on the minutiae. I’ve quickly learned how much my new role is to empower and trust our incredibly talented, experienced leaders to make their own good decisions. That gives me the independence from daily activities to use everyone’s input as I make my own — hopefully good — decisions about the future of our organization.

There’s never been a better time for new executives to shake things up, change how business is done, and reinvigorate the industry. New leaders at credit unions large and small talk about experiences and insights as they navigate their first months on the job in Callahan’s CEO Onboarding Guide. Read it today.

What are some important first steps to take as a new CEO?

JV: It’s important to intentionally create a safe space. That starts with sharing what I care about, my values, and my vision for the future. Then I listen to the staff to find out the same from them. Then we work to connect that to where we’re going and how to get there. People feel real engagement from that process.

With that in mind, I called all my direct reports on the day my appointment was announced to immediately establish the focus was on them, not me, and that I valued each of them as executives of their organization.

At our first meeting, we talked about each and every person’s “why” — why they work at a credit union, why at this organization, why they get up and do what they do every day. We connected to our overall values and not what’s on our resumes.

That built a level of comfort and safety in a setting that can feel scary when there’s a change like this. People can feel like the new CEO is going to come in and replace everybody. That didn’t happen here at all. None of our senior leaders have left.

How important is servant-leadership?

JV: I’m here to facilitate the organization and empower those around me. That includes everyone who works at ORNL. I plan to visit each of our 28 branches in my first 60 days on the job. Forty-five days in and I’m well on the way.

On these visits, I share my vision for ORNL and listen to theirs. That helps establish an important, empowering connection with our front-line people.

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What are the challenges and opportunities in getting to $10 billion in assets?

JV: We’re already a good-sized credit union, and we’re in a fantastic geography. Big banks don’t control our market, and consumers have looked favorably on credit unions for a long time.Our area of East Tennessee is also a fast-growing market, which creates even more opportunity for us. We’re already well penetrated in communities that are growing a lot and we’re excited to focus on serving some underserved rural areas in a way that gets us back to our roots.

We have a solid foundation in place — now our challenge is to communicate internally on where and why we need to change. Things are going well, but what got us here won’t get us there.

I’ve seen the other side of $10 billion. I know what it takes to get there. That regulatory milestone is several years ahead of us. We’re at a perfect time to prepare for it now so we don’t have to introduce tremendous change all at once.

How are you navigating working with the board?

JV: The ORNL board brought me here, and we’re still in a honeymoon phase. I’d like it to stay that way. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 17 years. I respect the fact our board members are elected representatives of our members and they’re here to serve a governance role.

As CEO, I need to make that huge responsibility easier for them. I’ve worked closely with boards, and I know it boils down to communication. There should never be a time when anything is a shock or surprise to them. Let them know what’s going on, what you’re thinking, and how you’re thinking about it.

My job is to make sure when I bring something to them, I show them the connecting points and how everything aligns with our vision and strategy so they know what’s ahead of them.

What have you learned from other leaders?

JV: I’m grateful to my small network of other CEOs new to their roles and to longtime mentors who have been in their roles for years. Both have been extremely supportive, there to offer advice and talk about things only they would understand.

We’re in an unusually cooperative industry at its executive levels and having that kind of network is extraordinarily important when you make this kind of move..

What’s your approach to making changes?

JV: I kind of live by the old saying: measure twice, cut once. Don’t just look at the org chart and financials and make decisions. Take the time to really listen to the people around you.

The more people you listen to and the more you listen to them, the better you can triangulate the story between the changes you want to make, the changes they want to make, and what can wait.

It’s natural to come in ready to go with exciting changes. You might be ready, but the people around you aren’t. Take the time and energy to consider what you’re hearing. You’ll get more buy-in for what needs to be done now and you’ll hopefully have a long time to take on the rest that can wait.

This interview has been edited and condensed.