Three CU Pros Honored for Marketing, Business Development Achievements

CMBDC
March 24, 2010 | COMMENTS

Joe Hearn, Kellie Terhune-Neely, and Sandra Carangi were honored for their credit union marketing and business development achievements during a ceremony at the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council (CMBDC) Conference, which took place March 21-24 in Washington, DC.

Joe Hearn, chief operating officer for Dupaco Community CU in Dubuque, Iowa was the 2010 Hall of Fame inductee. Hearn started in marketing at Dupaco in 1985, when the credit union served 19,000 members, had $55 million in assets and offered just a handful of products. Now the COO, his credit union has $826 million in assets and serves more than 56,000 members through ten branch locations. The credit union's wide array of products now include savings, checking, debit/ATM cards, online banking, consumer, mortgage and business loans; as well as investment, insurance and trust services. He was a co-founder of the CMBDC and served on the executive committee and numerous other CMBDC committees for many years. Hearn has won numerous industry (and non-industry) awards and also serves as vice chair of his state league's board of directors.

Kellie Terhune-Neely, vice president for Hughes FCU in Tucson, Ariz. won the Marketing Professional of the Year Award. Terhune-Neely has helped her credit union grow from more than 11,000 members and $53 million in assets to more than 58,000 members and $458 million in assets today. Her responsibilities not only include all aspects of marketing, but also the sales and training efforts of the credit union, which have helped the credit union accomplish and achieve this great success. Terhune-Neely is very active with her state credit union league where she works on both political advocacy public relations and communications. She has also led the way in her community to support financial literacy and low cost financial services – an important calling for this credit union given their support of underserved markets. Specifically, Terhune-Neely built several relationships with state lawmakers to further the cause of financial literacy.

Sandi Carangi, vice president of business development for Erie FCU in Erie, P.a. was presented with the Business Development Professional of the Year Award. Carangi has been in marketing for 22 years and in the credit union industry as a marketing and business development professional for 12 years. She has seen her credit union go from a private employer base to a community charter and her town face more company closings, more layoffs and the highest poverty rate of any city in their state. Yet the credit union saw 4.9% membership growth in 2008 and 2009's growth was 9.86%. Also in 2008, three new businesses joined the CU and 2009, 13 new businesses became BAP's - Business Affinity Partners (CUs new term for SEGs).

An in-depth article on the winners and their achievements will be featured in the May 2010 issue of Credit Union Magazine. For more information on the CMBDC awards, go to www.cunamarketingcouncil.org and choose the appropriate link on the “Events” pull-down menu.