On this edition of Money, I’m Home, Lynne happily introduces Consumers Credit Union’s new CEO & President Scott Sylvester. Tune into to learn about his history with the credit union and his plans for the future.

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0:00:06.4 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we’ve got it all, and today we have such a special program for you because we’re going to introduce you to our brand new, well, he’s been here a while, our CEO and President of Consumers Credit Union, Scott Sylvester. I’m so excited to sit with you today and chat about what’s going on in your life.

0:00:31.0 Scott Sylvester (SS): It’s great to be with you, Lynne, thank you.

0:00:32.9 LJJ: So here you are, you’ve been involved with Consumers for how many years?

0:00:37.7 SS: I started in 1994. And so, that’s been over 28 years for me.

0:00:42.9 LJJ: That is a long time! And something pretty big happened just a few months ago, didn’t it?

0:00:47.6 SS: Well, sure it did. Our CEO for many years, 38 years to be exact, Kit Snyder retired. Snd I was fortunate enough to be named his successor by the board.

0:01:00.1 LJJ: Well, I have been honored to work with you alongside of you 11 years since I’ve been here, and it has been such a joy and the transition as you now CEO, it must be very exciting, not only for you but your family. I know for everybody here at Consumers, it’s truly just a Godsend.

0:01:17.6 SS: Well, I appreciate that, Lynne, it’s been probably behind the scenes, Kit and the Board of Directors embraced a succession plan that I think has worked very well. The formal announcement was made in December of last year, and so we just hit the ground running and we’re so excited to continue to make this a great place to work and serve all of Michigan with the great service and products that we have.

0:01:41.9 LJJ: So, let’s back up a little bit. Do you remember your first day at Consumers?

0:01:47.4 SS: I do, yeah. I had just a little Ford Ranger pickup truck that I pulled into the office and I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. Although it was a career change for me to get into financial services, I have a family that has been involved in finance with older siblings, and my mom worked in a bank for many years, so I was excited for the new challenge, at that time, our new accounting manager started, Pat O’Connor who was a long-time employee and board member of Consumers. So, we kind of leaned on each other and it was an exciting time.

0:02:23.0 LJJ: So, you get in on your first day, tell us a little bit about what Consumers was like then. And then we’re going to fast forward to now.

0:02:30.4 SS: Sure, so we just had two offices back in 1994 with one primarily at Emerald Drive and Cambridge over by the old Consumers Power office off of Cork Street. And for many, many years, they serve Consumers Power employees only. But through the years expanding their charter, we had that office to serve primarily the utility companies, but we had other members joining at that time, and then we had a smaller, really a modular office out in South Haven to serve Palisades Nuclear Plant.

0:03:02.1 LJJ: So, you go into it thinking, Okay, what? That’s a bump in the road or what were you thinking? Boy, this could be long-term.

0:03:09.7 SS: Well, I started as an accounting clerk, so I was rolling up my sleeves, I have an accounting minor, so something that I would easily picked up and was able to help out, but we were small enough back then that on Thursdays when the Consumers Power employees at time, Consumers Energy now got their paychecks handed to them at the lunch hour in the office, they would bring those in and cash them. So, it was every hand on deck, and we all were running teller lines and cash and checks for the employees back then.

0:03:37.8 LJJ: Fast forward to now. And tell me the difference between employee count and our asset size.

0:03:44.4 SS: So, we went from about 15-18 employees in 1994, $26 million in assets to 400 employees today and $2 billion in assets as of this last month.

0:03:56.9 LJJ: That’s just incredible.

0:03:58.3 SS: That’s an amazing story of really organic growth that’s happened year over a year, about an annual average rate of 18%. So, I just think it’s a phenomenal story, not only in the credit union industry, but really any industry for that matter, to have that much growth and do it organically.

0:04:16.8 LJJ: I think one of the, I guess, the points that make success for us that I have noticed anyway, is the thought out strategic plan, and then the work on the strategic plan. It’s not a plan that’s been put on a shelf and gathers dust.

0:04:32.4 SS: That’s for sure, and every year we gather all employees, and we did this even when we were very small, for a professional development date, get them involved in a little bit of the planning process and brainstorm ideas of what can we do to make this a better place to work for not only our employees, but a better place to bank for our customers and our members. So, we would do that every year, and it has not changed for the 28 years that I’ve been with the credit union, and it won’t change in the future, we’ll continue to do that, so that we can identify what we can do to continue to take what I think is a superior product driven by the people that work here, to serve our communities that we live and work in.

0:05:13.3 LJJ: When you look back on the ups and downs of the economy in these years that you have been here, can you think, especially, I would automatically think pandemic, but you know the economy when it hit really low, just a few years back, what keeps you up at night when you think about how to make sure that the members can really help themselves financially every single day?

0:05:36.6 SS: Really ’94, we were coming out of a recession, and then we had one in the early 2000s, and then everybody obviously remembers the housing bubble, all of them had different challenges, different unique things that were going on, not only maybe locally in Kalamazoo, but regionally in Michigan, and beyond. So, I think what I loved about how we processed it and moved through those periods at the time is we could grind it out, we could roll up our sleeves, and people were very passionate about seeing the credit unions succeed and help members get through those tough times. So that we do workout loans and forbearance agreements, and certainly during the pandemic, there was a lot of other programs that were done from payroll protection program and to assistance that came from the Federal Government and stimulus. So, there will be tough times again, in the future, I think if you look forward right now, there’s a lot of unknowns, but certainly I think we have the best team to hopefully get us through those hard times.

0:06:33.4 LJJ: And I think two of your greatest passions, which make me smile. One of them is obviously member service and exceeding someone’s expectations, that also leads to employee service, the second one is technology, and you’d think in some respect that those two… Well, member service seems to be much more intimate, but in reality, what’s happening is it’s both, isn’t it?

0:06:56.8 SS: Sure, yeah. We just had a session with probably 15 new employees that started today, and we talked a little bit about that and how do you do digital and technology so that it helps the member, it helps the employee but doesn’t get in their way. And so that we can succeed at that, and I think we’ve done that quite well over the years. And I started in accounting, I kind of shifted into more IT at the credit union over the years, is the internet boom of the late ’90s and online banking became a reality, and now everybody’s doing pretty much everything on their phones, certainly things have changed, but we want to be one of the great enablers of our team and our members to allow them to do, and what we say at all the time, bank how you want, when you want.

0:07:42.5 LJJ: So, what do you think are the top two or three things that you are most proud of when you look at your career and now here you are as CEO?

0:07:51.3 SS: Well, it’s clearly the people around us, and there’s people that have been here as long as I have, I may be the longest, but not by much. And there’s a lot of folks here that have been along on this journey for many years, and then the executive team that we look at today, it’s been on the journey for 10 plus years. There’s just a lot of pride in Consumers Credit Union, and I live and breathe Consumers, so does my family, my wife, they’ve been involved with the credit union and many events over the years, so it’s just something I have a love and passion for.

0:08:25.8 LJJ: Well, I know you also have a passion for green, Michigan State. [laughter] You graduated from Michigan State.

0:08:32.7 SS: I did, and graduated in 1992, I’m a die-hard Spartan fan, I attend many of the sporting events, for sure.

0:08:39.6 LJJ: Now, the other thing that people might not know about you, Scott, you just kind of wrapped up a really important role in Mattawan, tell us about your volunteer commitments and what gives you passion for that?

0:08:50.6 SS: Sure, you know, I’ve volunteered a lot over the years, have been involved in things that were either with my church or  little league with the kids, and it kind was driven a little bit by where my kids were traveling through school and grade school and on, and did some foundation work at Mattawan and then ultimately was on the Mattawan Board of Education for about 10 years, just resigned that post last December kind of because of this transition. Certainly enjoyed my time with the board members there, the people there, the staff there, and the kids just always make you smile. So, it was a fulfilling position, even though maybe in some tough times, but we certainly made the best of it in Mattawan.

0:09:33.4 LJJ: So, Consumers is really well-known and respected for our community giving and our feet on the ground, we like to volunteer, we like to run, we like to walk. I’ve seen you bike, how important is that to you?

0:09:45.4 SS: I think it’s not just important to me, it’s important to every employee here that we do commitments in our community that people have passion around, and so that they can contribute in ways, it’s not just us writing a check. So, absolutely, yes. I’ve ridden bikes, I’ve done walks with folks. Tomorrow night, I’m going to go to a new one and up in Grand Rapids, a Woman’s Resource Center, and it’s giving back to the community and doing it in ways that you can really feel good about it as well.

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0:10:17.4 LJJ: You mentioned briefly, your family, let’s hear about them.

0:10:20.7 SS: My family, my wife Lisa, of 23 years, and I have three children, two boys. The oldest that are both in college up at Northern Michigan in the UP, which I can talk about the UP forever, I have fallen in love with it. And then my daughter is a sophomore at Mattawan.

0:10:37.9 LJJ: Well, Scott, thank you so much. Can I ask you a question?

0:10:40.5 SS: Sure.

0:10:41.8 LJJ: Another one, just a little ask one here, how many podcasts have you done?

0:10:45.4 SS: This might be my second one. [laughter]

0:10:46.7 LJJ: Yes. We’ve got him on the second one. Well, thank you much, Scott Sylvester, he is our CEO and president of Consumers Credit Union. Could not be more proud to work alongside you every day, but also to share his story with you today. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. Money, I’m home, from finance to fitness. Hey, Jake Esselink, thank you so much for your production skills, if you have a topic you’d like to share, please send it our way, and have a great week.

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