Amundson spent more than 30 years working in user experience, digital strategy, and social business intelligence. His resume includes leadership roles at UnitedHealth Group, Symantec, and Metavante, where he built teams, drove digital innovation, and helped modernize how people interact with financial services.

He brought that outsider experience to Langley FCU when he joined the team in 2019. In 2023, he took the role of vice president of member experience and now leads initiatives across CRM, feedback, AI, and service design.

Today, Amundson helps to reframe the member journey using lessons from tech, healthcare, and banking. His focus is not solely on solving problems but also on building systems that listen, learn, and evolve.

Here, he reflects on what it means to bring an outsider’s eye to a member-owned cooperative — and how he’s helping Langley deliver the kind of experience today’s members expect.

What brought you to Langley FCU?

Erling Amundson: I’ve enjoyed creating things throughout my career and I’ve had the chance to build teams at several organizations. My mission is to make things better.

I’ve been a member of Langley for many years. When an opportunity to join the organization as its first member experience professional emerged, it seemed like a chance to make an impact and create something good.

What did you bring from previous roles into the member experience role at the credit union?

EA: Research. Design. Process. Understanding. Creating.

One role early in my career was as a designer at M&I Data Services/Metavante where I worked to design banking software. This provided a great foundation for the role at Langley.

In your prior roles, how did you foster innovation, risk‐taking, or experimentation? Have you brought any of those methods into Langley?

EA: Part of my job is to encourage the use of design thinking practices. Use of research to gain understanding and then collaborating using tools like journey mapping helps us generate innovative product and service improvements. Being agile and iterating on ideas helps enable innovation. We seek to apply data and insights to make continuous improvements, which enables bigger changes over time while reducing risk.

What were your priorities when you first stepped into the role? Have they shifted in the past five years?

EA: I was tasked with member feedback, CRM, and implementing a design approach. Those are still at the core, but I’ve also added AI, knowledge management, and contact center leadership. Now I lead a fantastic team.

What’s one thing you’ve learned about member expectations that you think the industry still hasn’t fully caught up to?

EA: People have interactions with a wide variety of organizations. Their expectations are shaped as they shop online or use a fast-food drive-thru. Be alert to emerging trends, compare yourself to experience leaders, and be ready to quickly adopt new best practices.

What is a common belief or practice within credit unions that you challenged based on your prior industry experience?

EA: Like many credit unions, we aren’t able to develop all of the technology needed to deliver experiences to our members. However, we work hard to understand what is possible and work with our vendor partners to optimize the technology. As someone who used to design products, I was always eager to see products I created being used. I value vendor partners who appreciate working with us to configure the product effectively and to co-design new capabilities.

Talk about the impact a recent member experience initiative has had.

EA: We work continuously to improve our member experience, and Langley has implemented numerous improvements this year. I can’t list all of them, but I’ll highlight that we have improved our checking account offerings, enabled digital issuance of cards, and implemented some features in our IVR and chatbots that enable them to provide more direct responses to member questions.

Many improvement ideas come from listening to our members. Each of those initiatives started with feedback. We then worked collaboratively toward delivering solutions that help our members. Repeating that process over time enables us to continuously improve experiences.

How has your thinking around member experience changed over time? What advice would you give to others who are working to build a more member-centric culture?

EA: The main advice I would give is to get started. Actively listen to your members. Measure things. And work collaboratively toward making improvements.

There have been a lot of changes to working in member experience over time. I have seen the emergence of multiple specialized MX disciplines. Identify the challenges you face and tap into that expertise.

But you should also recognize the expertise found in people throughout the credit union. Set a vision for the type of experience your members will appreciate and then work together to make that vision a reality.

How do you define success in your role?

EA: I work every day toward making things just a bit better. I can measure that success when we hear from our members that they had a great experience.

I can see it in service metrics such as how quickly we can complete a member request while ensuring that they feel their request has been resolved.

If we’ve been successful at improving experiences, that will show success as more people deepen their relationship with us.

What is coming up in the months ahead that you are excited about?

EA: Earlier this year we implemented a new phone technology that’s integrated with our CRM. It enables a more streamlined experience for our representatives that helps them provide a better voice experience for our members. I’m looking forward to continuing to build and improve these technologies toward delivering significantly improved member experiences via phone.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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My background is in marketing and branding, but it was primarily focused on the restaurant and retail industries. At the end of the day, both roles are about service — in restaurants, it’s serving the customer; in credit unions, it’s serving the member. That was the “aha” part.

When Ascend Federal Credit Union ($4.5B, Tullahoma, TN) set out to reimagine its marketing strategy, it didn’t just look for a leader with experience, it looked for a leader with perspective. That search led the cooperative to Nick Riegal, a branding and communications veteran whose career spanned retail, food service, and tourism. Notably, it did not include financial services, but that didn’t deter Riegal or Ascend.

“I come from a world that’s consumer-led, so how do we make sure we’re member-led?” Riegal says. “If our members succeed in their goals, we’ve done our job.”

Now, Ascend’s new senior vice president of marketing is applying a member-first mindset to help the credit union rethink how it connects with community.

Talk a bit about your background. What drew you to Ascend?

Nick Riegal: My background is in marketing and branding, but it was primarily focused on the restaurant and retail industries. At the end of the day, both roles are about service — in restaurants, it’s serving the customer; in credit unions, it’s serving the member. That was the “aha” part. After speaking with our CEO, Matt Jernigan, and Leslie Copeland, our senior vice president of data and analytics, I knew it was the right fit. Hearing about Ascend’s mission to serve its members and seeing those actions directly impact people in our own backyard felt far more meaningful than simply tracking revenue on a ledger sheet. It’s much closer to home. 

Did you have any assumptions about the industry that you have discovered are wrong or different from what you anticipated?

NR: My wife was a part of a credit union when we lived in Florida. My job at the time didn’t have a sponsored 401(k), so it was an opportunity to open an account to put some retirement savings in through a Roth IRA. I had always assumed credit unions had an exclusive membership that most people couldn’t qualify for. I didn’t think about them as an option for everyday banking. 

When I joined Ascend, I came in with plenty of ideas and research questions: What’s unique here? Where can we get different footholds? I had this big idea of a David-and-Goliath dynamic — banks versus credit unions. Yet when we did some initial research, it showed the gap in public sentiment wasn’t as big as I expected, so I knew we needed to find a different angle. 

What were your priorities in the beginning?

NR: Marketing has three goals. We need to increase future demand, capture current demand, and retain and build member loyalty. We were doing really well capturing current demand, but we weren’t doing as well on the future demand and loyalty side. 

One of the first things I did was hire a new advertising agency partner to help rightsize our media plan. We were strong in lower-funnel conversion tactics, but we weren’t telling the full story so people would know about Ascend before they were ready to make a move. Our new agency helped us look at that entire member journey from start to finish. 

From a high level, it’s only been in place for about a quarter, but we’ve seen roughly a 25% increase in people taking action and a similar increase in new visitors to our website. 

Talk about a marketing campaign you’ve led since joining Ascend. What were the results?

NR: We’ve historically offered a $50 incentive for opening a youth account in April for Youth Month. It wasn’t revolutionary, but this year, we upped the incentive from $50 to $100 and took a more focused approach to the promotion. In the past, Youth Month was one of several initiatives running at the same time. This year, we stayed singularly focused across all our communications and made sure Youth Month was front and center. 

We also got the branches behind it. They’ve always been supportive, but this time we gave them a budget to decorate and ran incentive contests for the highest percentage increase in accounts opened. 

The result was the highest new membership month we’ve ever had, surpassing the last two Aprils combined in the number of youth accounts opened. 

How do you define success in your role?

NR: For me, success means helping the brand grow, but not by any means necessary. 

I love technology and new product offerings, but it’s our job to maintain our culture and keep the member at the core of everything we do. 

We recently heard a great story from a woman who came to us with no credit at all. We set her up with a secured credit card and gave her a plan. Within six months, she boosted her score enough to qualify for a regular, low-rate credit card. When we do what we’re supposed to do, we earn business. She’s now telling friends and family about us. That’s the kind of growth I value. It’s not just a referral program or a promotion — it’s the visible actions we take as a brand that help organic growth happen. 

Is there anything strategically that you’re looking forward to in the next six to 12 months?

NR: We’re going to develop a new creative campaign toward the end of the year. It’ll be exciting to talk about the brand in a way that aligns with our new media approach. We’re working through some positioning and messaging, with the goal of breaking down communication barriers that exist in the credit union space. First, we have to overcome the hurdle of explaining what a credit union is. Then, we can focus on who we are as a brand. 

Another big initiative is going to be marketing automation. We’ll be going through a process to find the right partners as well as collaborating with our internal teams to understand the data connection. That’s the missing piece. We need to get everything into our data warehouse, connect it to our email platform, and ensure the two systems talk to each other. That’s been the bottleneck. 

At the beginning of next year, we’ll also look at revamping the website to better support both lead capture and how it functions overall for our current members. 

This article has been edited and condensed. Ascend is federally insured by the NCUA.  

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I hadn’t considered coming to a credit union. But when I interviewed, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time — sincerity.

Dylan Wyatt spent nearly two decades in corporate banking before taking a leap of faith into credit union culture.

As chief information and strategy officer at Together Credit Union ($2.6B, St. Louis, MO), he now leads a 40-person team and has used that platform to help build and sustain a forward-thinking culture rooted in collaboration, care, and innovation.

He didn’t come alone. Wyatt brought in longtime colleagues Jonathan Roberts and Siomara “Sio” Galaviz Herrera, both of whom he had worked with at Santander Bank in past lives.

Roberts joined Together in 2024 as vice president of strategy and DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) after several years as a researcher and strategist at Forrester. Herrera, Together’s director of digital and AI, came aboard in 2022 after a decade in financial services.

Their reunion brought fresh energy to the credit union’s leadership team and a corporate sensibility that’s finding a new purpose in a member-first environment. Although their roots are in banking and consulting, the trio says they’ve found more than just a new employer — they’ve found alignment.

Each brought a healthy skepticism with them but say they have since bought into the credit union difference. Along the way, they’ve redefined how a remote, cross-country team can function, built trust across the org chart, and learned to lead with both urgency and empathy.

How did the three of you end up together at Together Credit Union?

Jonathan Roberts: We all go way back to our days at Santander Bank in Boston. Dylan and I sat next to each other at one point, and I first met Sio at a Northeastern University career fair — I actually recruited her for an extended internship.

Over the years, we stayed in touch as our careers evolved. I eventually became an analyst at Forrester, but I stayed connected to Dylan, even doing keynotes at Together’s leadership conferences before joining.

Dylan Wyatt: Bringing people into a new space is never just a job offer — it’s a trust exercise. I’d seen how both Jonathan and Sio worked, how they solved problems, how they communicated.

When the right roles opened up, I knew they’d be a good fit, but I didn’t rush them. They both came in after taking their time to understand the mission and culture. We weren’t just rebuilding an old team — we were reshaping how we work in a new context.

How has your experience as recovering bankers — as you put it — shaped your perspective on the credit union world?

Siomara Galaviz Herrera: I like to say I’m fully recovered. I came in skeptical, for sure, but the more I talked to people in this space, the more I saw alignment between personal values and organizational values.

I was floored by the openness — not just within Together, but across the industry. Credit unions actually call each other to share solutions. That spirit of collaboration wasn’t something I’d seen much of in the for-profit world.

Jonathan Roberts: We each had different reasons for leaving the corporate grind, but we also brought some muscle memory — strategy, speed, urgency. That stuff has value here when applied the right way. The key is adapting it to a culture that genuinely prioritizes members over margin. You’ve got to recalibrate without losing what made you effective.

CreditUnions.com’s “Insights From The Outside” series shares the experience and perspectives of newcomers to the credit union industry. Read more today
How do you make the on-site/remote/hybrid dynamic work, especially in an industry that’s traditionally more in-person?

Dylan Wyatt: When I got here, remote work was basically non-existent. Now, my team of about 40 people is about 40% remote. We’ve created intentional moments for connection — off-site, team-building events, a group art project that still hangs in our HQ. We’ve proven that if you design for connection, geography isn’t a barrier. And without that approach, we wouldn’t have Sio or Jonathan on the team.

Jonathan Roberts: I split my time between St. Louis and Nashville and Sio is in New York. But even those of us based in St. Louis operate on a hybrid model, so remote collaboration isn’t just for out-of-towners. It’s become part of our muscle memory.

Dylan’s also been great about making space for bonding that’s not just performative. That includes quarterly gatherings and plenty of moments to just be human together. It’s not remote versus in-person — it’s intentional versus accidental culture-building.

How is Together Credit Union’s internal culture different from the member-facing culture? How do those two interact?

Jonathan Roberts: They’re connected by purpose. Internally, there’s a shared language around why we’re here and who we’re serving. That clarity creates cohesion across departments and roles. It’s not just a branding exercise — it’s real alignment. Our internal work around DEIB, for instance, reflects the same empathy and intentionality we want to bring to members.

Siomara Galaviz Herrera: What stands out is how deeply people care, even behind the scenes. The values that show up in member service — empathy, transparency, accessibility — also drive internal decisions. There’s a feedback loop between how we lead internally and how we show up externally. And that makes it easier to make decisions that benefit both teams and members.

We each had different reasons for leaving the corporate grind, but we also brought some muscle memory — strategy, speed, urgency. That stuff has value here when applied the right way. The key is adapting it to a culture that genuinely prioritizes members over margin. You’ve got to recalibrate without losing what made you effective.

What did you bring from your corporate careers that’s helped elevate your work at Together?

Jonathan Roberts: I think our corporate backgrounds help us cut through the noise. We skip the theater of work — the over-polished presentations and unnecessary meetings. There’s a shorthand between us that lets us go straight to execution. That makes room for real conversations, honest feedback, and better outcomes. Familiarity isn’t just convenient — it’s a strategic advantage.

What surprised you most after joining the credit union space?

Jonathan Roberts: How real the mission is. I’ve worked with Fortune 1000 companies that talked a big game about customer centricity, but the profit motive always won. Here, when we’re in a room making decisions, member impact actually drives the outcome. It’s not just talk — it’s practice. That’s rare, and it’s refreshing.

Dylan Wyatt: Same. I hadn’t considered coming to a credit union. But when I interviewed, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time — sincerity. People here care deeply about their coworkers and their members. And that mindset shows up in small things, like how we treat one person’s problem with the same urgency we’d give to a systemwide issue. That kind of care scales in a different way.

What advice do you have for someone coming to a credit union from a corporate background?

Jonathan Roberts: Check your ego at the door. In corporate settings, it’s often about being the smartest person in the room. Here, it’s about being the most aligned, the most collaborative, the most mission-focused. Don’t assume your old playbook will work. Be humble, be curious, and learn how to succeed in a culture that values purpose over polish.

Siomara Galaviz Herrera: Start talking to people in the industry. The openness here is real. Go to a credit union event, strike up conversations, and listen. If you lead with curiosity instead of credentials, you’ll learn a lot. And if you care about meaningful work, there’s a place for you here.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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A lot of the things we do as a credit union are numbers-driven, so I’m trying to create metrics the foundation can use to show our leadership the significance of what we do and the value-add we bring.

Natural disasters leave behind more than physical devastation; they also create opportunities for those with a heart for service to make a difference.

For Jay Huffstatler, it was Hurricane Katrina that launched the Mississippi native and mortgage banker into the non-profit world, where he now is the newly minted executive director of the OnPath Foundation, the philanthropic arm of OnPath Federal Credit Union ($1.0B, Metairie, LA).

Huffstatler has been in the role since November 2024, but he brings to it 20 years of experience that began with a role as FEMA liaison soon after Katrina made landfall in 2005.

He also worked with BP after the Deepwater Horizon spill and then with a series of foundations and non-profits — including the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity – connecting needs and resources to address issues plaguing underserved communities.

Today, Huffstatler helps communities across Southeast Louisiana build financial resilience. In this Q&A, Huffstatler shares his perspective on joining the credit union industry, the role of a foundation within a financial institution, and how his background in non-profit work has shaped his approach at OnPath.

What drew you to the role of executive director at OnPath Foundation?

Jay Huffstatler: Following Hurricane Katrina, I had the opportunity to work for a foundation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, administering recovery projects and grants. That experience showed me the unique impact a foundation can have in a community.

Unlike traditional non-profits, foundations operate with a strategic vision that can provide long-term, sustainable support. When I learned about the opportunity at OnPath Foundation, it felt like a perfect fit. Its focus on financial education, homeownership, and entrepreneurship aligned with the work I had done in disaster recovery and non-profit leadership.

Additionally, OnPath’s leadership had been looking for someone to take the foundation to the next level. It had been doing great work but needed a dedicated executive director to fully realize the foundation’s initiatives. That level of organizational commitment made this role even more appealing to me.

How do the credit union and the foundation complement each other?

JH: The foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of OnPath credit union. While the credit union focuses on providing financial services to its members, the foundation extends that impact by addressing systemic issues that prevent financial stability and growth in underserved communities.

My role is to ensure our initiatives align with OnPath’s broader strategic goals while also strengthening the credit union’s visibility and reputation within the community. By operating in tandem, we create a more holistic approach to financial empowerment, supporting both the members of the credit union and the broader community.

How do you get buy-in from the board and staff for the foundation’s initiatives?

JH: I focus on educating our board and staff about the tangible benefits of our initiatives — for not only the community but also the credit union. I regularly communicate with leadership about how our work strengthens member relationships and aligns with OnPath’s strategic vision.

We also ensure leadership plays an active role in our events and community engagement. When employees and board members see the direct impact of our work, their enthusiasm naturally follows, strengthening our collective commitment to the foundation’s goals.

And, internally, we’ve made it easier for staff to contribute to the foundation’s mission. Now it’s more like the United Way model. Staff donates to the foundation instead of directly to a dozen different organizations.

What are the foundation’s key programs? How do they help build generational wealth?

JH: We have three core pillars that guide our work. The first is financial education, which includes partnerships with local schools to provide financial literacy programs. Louisiana requires high school students to take a financial literacy course before graduating, and we are working to ensure every student has access to such at no cost.

The second pillar is homeownership. We’re launching a first-time homebuyer program that provides down payment assistance grants to members who secure their mortgage through the credit union. This initiative is designed to help families overcome one of the biggest barriers to building generational wealth.

Finally, we focus on entrepreneurship. We are hosting a speaker series featuring successful entrepreneurs, including an upcoming event with Daymond John from Shark Tank. Our goal is to inspire and equip local entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed. These initiatives work together to create opportunities for financial empowerment, independence, and stability across our community.

What is the culture like at OnPath? How does it compare to your expectations?

JH: I initially expected a more rigid, corporate environment — something similar to what I experienced working in banking years ago. However, I’m pleasantly surprised by how casual and mission-driven the culture at OnPath has been.

There’s a real sense of collaboration and community that I wasn’t necessarily expecting. It’s been refreshing to work in an environment that prioritizes both business strategy and social impact in a way that feels authentic and approachable.

Have there been any surprises?

JH: Beyond the culture piece, not really. Successful engagement comes down to building trusting relationships with stakeholders, whether they’re donors or volunteers or community leaders.

The same applies to the foundation. A lot of the things we do as a credit union are numbers-driven, so I’m trying to create metrics the foundation can use to show our leadership the significance of what we do and the value-add we bring from the credit union to the community.

What advice do you have for someone transitioning from another industry into a credit union?

JH: Assess how your skills align with the credit union’s mission. If you have experience in relationship-building, community impact, and stakeholder engagement, those skills are highly transferable. I play to my strengths as a bridge-builder. That means using my non-profit experience to act as a bridge between the credit union’s business objectives and the foundation’s philanthropic and fundraising goals.

Understanding financial literacy and business strategies is also crucial, but you don’t have to be an expert from day one. Be open to learning and focus on how your background can add value.

The credit union movement blends the best of the non-profit and financial worlds. It’s a mix of mission-driven service and business strategy. If you’re coming from outside the industry, take time to understand the credit union philosophy — it’s about people helping people, and that mindset will guide your success in this space.

Credit unions are sometimes called an industry and sometimes a movement. Which is it to you?

JH: To me it’s a blend of both, which is a really cool place to be.

Make Leadership Development A Priority In 2025. Callahan Executive Roundtables give C-suite executives the chance to talk with and learn from like-minded leaders about industry hot topics, roadblocks, strategies, lessons learned, and more. Give your leaders the gift of inspiration through collaboration. Learn more today.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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“I feel fortunate the jobs I had were focused on giving back and making a difference,” he says. “It’s interesting to me that I stumbled into something I think people later in life want, which is to have an impact in your daily life.”

Although Hendry came to IC from outside the credit union industry, he wasn’t unfamiliar with the cooperative. He spent a decade volunteering with IC, first as a member of the supervisory committee and later as a member of the board. After the former CEO left IC, the board approached Hendry to gauge his interest in stepping into the role, telling him it was looking to go in a different leadership direction.

“I was blown away and appreciative,” Hendry says. “But the more I thought about it, the more I thought it’s similar to what I’ve been doing throughout my career. It’s just doing it in a different fashion for the financial industry.”

Here, Hendry reflects on his journey from industry outsider to cooperative leader, reflections on that transition, moving from working on the board to working for the board, and more.

What initially attracted you to the credit union industry? Did your previous experience influence that decision?

Christopher Hendry: My career to that point had been about asking for money and trying to explain to donors how their financial commitment would make a lasting impact. Now, at IC, I was going to be on the other side. Based on my history in the nonprofit world, I thought I’d be able to have an impact if we could focus on how we committed funds structurally.

The other part of it was having the opportunity to lead an organization, for me to be in not a leadership position but the leadership position. Hopefully, I’d honed my skills during 15 years of various vice-president and leadership positions where I wanted to show that I could lead and make an impact.

I had a mentor at the local university who used to say, “When we make decisions, is it in the best interest of students? If it isn’t, why are we talking about it?” I stole that and say, “Is it in the best interests of our members? And if it isn’t, how do we find a way to make it be?”

Were there things that surprised you about working at the credit union?

CH: I think it would be hard for anybody from the board to really understand what the day-to-day operation is like. By my third month I was more well-versed in what was going on at the credit union than I ever could be by having 150 meetings over 10 years. The board manages the CEO and helps set the priorities for where the organization wants to go, but it’s not actively involved in day-to-day operations and making sure things get done. When you get into the job, it is the camel putting its nose under the tent for the first time. It’s amazing to see how everything is done.

How did your prior experience influence how you work with the board?

CH: Having the background and knowledge of what the board discussed and what we saw from the management perspective, and then seeing both sides, was really an eye-opener for me.

Were there any misconceptions about credit unions that were clarified once you became CEO?

CH: I looked at credit unions like every other financial institution and expected a bit of cutthroat competition. Early on I received a phone call from a leader at a competing credit union who wanted to introduce me to a couple of CEOs. The CEO I met with basically opened his doors and told me everything about his business. I thought to myself, “Am I not now able to steal everything you’re telling me and put it to work?” The answer, of course, is although we compete, we want to be able to collaborate. I thought that was interesting.

After three weeks of those meetings and talking to about seven CEOs who all said the same thing, I thought, “Well, not only do I like what they’re talking about but I can fit in here.”

Four years later it isn’t any different.

What are the cultural differences you’ve seen between education and health care and credit unions?

CH: There were 1,400 people at the university, 15,000 people at the hospital, and 125 people at the credit union. That scale is a lot different when you’re trying to change culture and keep focused on what you’re trying to do. We’re able to be a bit more nimble at the credit union.

How did your prior experience shape your leadership approach in a credit union context?

CH: I had a mentor at the local university who used to say, “When we make decisions, is it in the best interest of students? If it isn’t, why are we talking about it?” I stole that and say, “Is it in the best interests of our members? And if it isn’t, how do we find a way to make it be?”

What aspects of leading a credit union required a completely new mindset or skillset for you?

CH: Not having the financial background of a CFO or a lender, I had to place a lot of trust in my current CFO, who does a phenomenal job and was instrumental in bringing me along. Building that relationship helped me understand that I didn’t have to do everything. As CEO, I had to stop myself from getting too deep because I didn’t want to micromanage. I wanted people to be able to make their own mistakes and come back to me with their own solutions. That was a true awakening for me — trying to shed what I knew and how I worked and adopting new working practices and styles.

What advice would you give to someone considering an executive role in a credit union, especially if they’re coming from another industry?

CH: Jump in. Take the chance. For people outside the industry, it’s mindboggling to see how you can operate in a successful business that has a mission of giving back but still run it like a business. This isn’t a nonprofit that’s worried month to month about how we’re going to make payroll. We know we’re a successful business because we’re a $600 million credit union, but we’re able to leverage that to make an impact in our community. We stand behind that every day. We get to see the impact we’re making. For me, that’s life-altering.

What were you wrong about?

CH: I did too many things too soon. We brought everyone through a comprehensive strategic plan while changing the culture identifying new technology to bring on board.’

That’s a herculean effort to do any of those three things at once, and we did all three of them at the same time. We were successful, but looking back, I put a lot of pressure on the team and it put a lot more work on the table. Having the opportunity to redo that, I think I’d still focus on the same three things, but I might have spaced it out a bit.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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