Exit Interview: Hank Hubbard, One Detroit Credit Union

I’m seen as someone who has been pushing the credit union ideal of serving people who are left out of the financial mainstream and doing it against the odds, and I’m proud of that.

After more than three decades at the helm of One Detroit Credit Union ($69.4M, Detroit, MI), Hank Hubbard is preparing to leave the only credit union leadership role he’s ever held.

Hubbard — who will be succeeded by Portia Powell, the credit union’s first Black and female chief executive — has led the cooperative since 1991. Back then it was still known as Communicating Arts Credit Union, rebranding as One Detroit in 2015. Hubbard was running a computer consulting firm in the 1980s and says the credit union’s then-CEO “just decided I needed to be in credit unions.”

Hubbard’s time in the hot seat has coincided with a massive shift within the city of Detroit. For example, only a few credit unions are headquartered in the city today compared to more than 30 in the early 1990s. Many of the problems that plagued Detroit then, such as crime and poverty, are still present, but downtown also has undergone a major revitalization in the past decade. Unfortunately, other parts of the city haven’t benefited from such efforts. That’s why Hubbard has made it his mission to make life better for all Motor City residents.

Here, he reflects on his time in credit union leadership, why Detroit’s fortunes have been a personal calling, his legacy in the industry, and more.

How has the industry changed during your career?

Hank Hubbard: It’s a lot smaller, which is a combination both of financial institutions leaving the city and the consolidation of our industry. But it’s also less collaborative than it used to be. Back then, credit unions had a defined field of membership, and, for the most part, there was little competition.

When does your retirement take effect?

HH: I retire from my CEO position at the end of the year, and I’ll stay on [until June 1, 2025] in an advisory role to help the transition and do whatever my successor wants me to do. I’m at her beck and call.

Did you have a mentor? What was your biggest takeaway from that experience?

HH: I’ve had lots of them. If you look at my whole credit union career, it’s Dean Trudeau, CEO of Public Service Credit Union ($425.4M, Romulus, MI). He’s not that much older than me but is still working, and I’m retiring before him.

The credit union industry makes it easy to collaborate. We’re friendly with one another just networking, spending time together, and sharing experiences. I can’t imagine that happening in any other industry … bankers just don’t do that.

What was it like running a credit union focused on Detroit during some of the city’s lean years?

HH: I’m from Grosse Pointe, which is one street over from Detroit, so I grew up here. It was a vibrant city when I was young in the 1960s but was on a downward path probably until after the year 2000.

Dan Gilbert, the owner of Quicken Loans, saw an opportunity to take on Detroit as a project, move all of his companies here, and invest in making it a fun place. He turned abandoned buildings into living spaces, which we’ve never had downtown. We’ve gotten great restaurants, and it’s been wonderful, but the people we actually serve who don’t live downtown are being left out because all the investment is happening in the central business district. So, our space is to try to help people in the communities where they are left out.

What kinds of initiatives did One Detroit undertake to help lift up the city? Why was that important?

HH: You need to have a car in the Motor City. We don’t have good public transportation, and owning a car is really expensive — not only buying it but also paying for insurance. I think we’re in one of the highest car insurance markets in the country. We found people were getting into car loans at predatory rates. The max in Michigan is 25%, and we were seeing loans at 20% and 25% fairly often. Under normal underwriting, we couldn’t do anything about it because they also were underwater; they owed quite a bit more than the book value of the vehicle. So we came up with a program called Refi My Ride, which refinances loans at half the rate they’re currently paying and will go above 100% LTV. We went as high as 140% on one exception.

That takes someone who is paying 20% down to 10%, which is breathtaking. We save members an average of $65 a month, but for some people it’s like $300 a month because they bought more vehicle than they can afford. We’ve saved members almost $10 million in interest that would’ve gone to other lenders but instead stayed in our members’ pockets and in the community. We help people get out of predatory situations and still make it profitable for us — it’s an everybody-wins situation.

What makes all of this so personal for you?

HH: Growing up, I wasn’t exposed to people who were different from me until I went to college at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Then I moved to Orlando, where lots of people were different from me, then I moved to New York — Manhattan and Queens — and I’m on the subway with all kinds of people different from me.

We’ve got a pretty diverse population in Detroit, mostly Blacks and whites but also fairly significant Hispanic, Asian, and Arab communities. But it’s very segregated; they don’t mix very much. The losers in that transaction are the African Americans who were mostly left in Detroit [after the city’s exodus of the late 20th century]. I wanted to try to bridge that gap a little bit.

When the credit union had an opportunity to expand its field of membership to include anybody in the community, our board was very supportive. I kind of got my dream come true when we were able to expand and work directly with people in the city.

The Exit Interview series features parting thoughts and wisdom from influential leaders in the credit union movement upon their retirement. Read the whole series on CreditUnions.com.

What’s the best advice you have for new CEOs?

HH: I don’t like to tell people what to do, but I don’t mind giving insight. One thing that has made my life easier is nurturing positive relationships. Lots of times I see CEOs fighting with their boards — that’s not good for anybody. Nurture relationships with your board and do the same thing with your examiners. Find something to like. Your examiners and your colleagues are an invaluable source of information. Don’t try to do it all yourself. There are people out there like me who like to talk about their challenges and offer advice.

What’s next for you after retirement?

HH: My wife and I want to travel. We’ve never had more than a couple of weeks to go anywhere, so we’re going to try the other side of the world for a little while.

I’ve gained an awful lot of experience in serving the underserved and using grant funding, so something might come out of that, but I don’t know what and I don’t know where to look for it. I’m pretty excited to just decompress. With 30 years of working on the same project, you accumulate a lot of things to worry about. I want to flush that out of my system before I jump back in.

How do you hope to be remembered at One Detroit and across the industry?

HH: Since my retirement announcement, there’s been an outpouring of really nice comments to me —  emails, comments on social media posts, and stuff like that. I’m seen as someone who has been pushing the credit union ideal of serving people who are left out of the financial mainstream and doing it against the odds, and I’m proud of that. I know in Michigan I’m seen as someone who showed others what was possible, and I’m happy with that as my legacy.

This industry has allowed me to be a good guy and be successful in that. It doesn’t feel like there are a lot of industries where that can happen, and I’m proud of that.

— This interview has been edited and condensed.