Oakland's Focus On Growing A Big CU With Even Bigger Heart; Keeping The Philosophy In Action At BECU

ECU is one of the largest credit unions in the United States with nearly $12 billion in assets. But Gary Oakland, its president and CEO from 1986 until his retirement in 2012, insisted on the CU keeping a small feel. Oakland, who is being honored as one of the winners of the 2014 Herb Wegner Award for Lifetime Achievement, told Credit Union Journal he is most proud of not losing sight of what is important as BECU expanded. The credit union still officially is named Boeing Employees Credit Union, but began using BECU as early as the late 1990s in an effort to try to avoid the confusion many credit unions face by a name that appears to limit membership. It moved to a statewide charter in 2003; then growth really took off.