Meet the 2013 Judges

The judges for the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge have been announced: Deedee Myers, CEO of CUES Supplier member and challenge sponsor DDJ Myers in Phoenix; Gary Easterling, CCE, President/CEO, United Federal Credit Union, St. Joseph, Mich.; Ron Hance, CUDE, President/CEO, Heritage Family Federal Credit Union, Rutland, Vt.; and Stacie Wyss-Schoenborn, VP of Member Solutions, BECU, Tukwila, Wash.

After a public vote reduced the original 29 applicants to the Top 15, a judging panel of Myers, Easterling, and Wyss-Schoenborn evaluated and scored each member of the Top 15. Judging was based on their original application video, their blog post and the value that their project brings to their credit union and to the credit union industry as a whole. The five highest-ranking applicants were named as Finalists.

Judges are responsible for keeping up to date on the projects each of the five Finalists are reporting on at NextTopCreditUnionExec.com, and for viewing the final presentations with a critical eye toward the criteria of creative thinking, content/idea, and style. Each Finalist will be given seven minutes to recap their project in a presentation face-off event at CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network™ in San Diego, November 3–6, 2013. Hance joins Myers and Wyss-Schoenborn as judges for this portion of the challenge.

According to Deedee Myers, “The most precious resource in an organization is the individual who comes to work every day. Understanding what motivates the individual and creating an environment where each person makes a difference automatically encourages creativity and innovation–a must for us as an industry, as a country, as a global economy. The Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge does just that and helps the credit union industry reveal its next generation of leaders.”

The judging panel is just one of the ways the Finalists’ presentations on Monday, November 4, will be evaluated. Audience members at the conference will be able to vote for their favorite on the spot, and the public will also be able to vote online on November 4-5. The Finalist with the highest score based on audience votes, online votes, social media interaction, as well as the judging panel results, will earn the title of CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec.

The CUES Team