Dick Ensweiler

Dick Ensweiler
Texas CU League CEO and Credit Union National Association chairman

Describe your first job and what you learned from it.

My first job was as a caddy at North Hills Country Club. I did that from ages 13 to 15. I learned the rules and etiquette of golf and the importance of good service (at a bag rate of $3.50 for singles and $5 to carry doubles, it was all about the tips!). I also learned it would be more fun to hire a caddy then to be one, so I became determined to get a degree and work hard when the opportunity presented itself.

What's one thing your staff probably doesn't know about you?

That I'm the answer to two trivia questions at our high-school reunions. We were the first class through the first high school in Brookfield, Wis. On the first day of the first football practice ever, I broke my leg--becoming the first athletic injury in the school's history. The following year, I was the first prom king.

Whom do you admire most and why?

That's a tough one. There are many to choose from. Guys like Dick Robinson, R. C. Morgan, Marion Gregory, and Wilford McKinnon were very strong nationally when I first came into the movement. They had terrific vision, were excellent leaders, and all chaired their leagues, CUNA, and other major organizations. Additionally, the list of league presidents that I admire and learned so much from is too long to enumerate here.

Perhaps the guy that I knew very well that best exemplified the cooperative spirit that I so deeply believe in, who had the vision that few others have had, and who I consulted with most along the way was Jim Jukes. I remember early in my career as a 30-year-old league president turning to Jim for advice on a variety of league issues, be they political, structure, or economic. He was the president of the Kansas Credit Union League and had been chairman of the International Association of Managing Directors (the organization now named AACUL). He was passionate about everything he did.

While the credit union movement was debating whether we should expose members to open-end credit, Jim crisscrossed the U.S. making the case with credit union leaders and helping write the laws to allow it.

I remember many of us being concerned about whether credit unions would be frozen out of the emerging "funds transfer environment." The Kansas League already had anticipated that issue and had purchased the Bank of Lancaster. I took a committee of the Illinois Credit Union League to Wichita, Kan., to sit at Jim's knee and listen to what he thought was coming and what we might do. That same bank was the first "payable through" bank that allowed credit union members to access their share accounts via a draft. It was years later when the rest of the credit union movement caught up and pursued the opportunity to offer share drafts.

When we needed to create a system to harness liquidity in the movement, Jim was one of the visionaries and organizers of both U.S. Central Credit Union and the Corporate Credit Union Network. Many years before, he had created the first pure corporate credit union in America. Because of the progressive state laws his team obtained in Kansas, U.S. Central was chartered there. Jim was knowledgeable about the economics that made the credit union movement work and helped develop the structure to keep the system in place.

Ultimately, Jim impressed Herb Wegner so much that Herb hired him to run CUNA Service Group. We all looked to Jim for leadership again as he served at the national level running CUNA's for-profit businesses. He was exceptional there, too.

What's your personal passion?

Making a difference, whether it be during quality time with and providing for my family, helping in the policy making and strategic direction of CUNA, making a better life for and more fulfilling workplace for the staff of the Texas Credit Union League, or providing the environment (laws, regulations, products, etc.) to allow member credit unions to better serve their members. I love my position as CEO of this League because it has afforded me the opportunity to be resourceful and passionate in trying to make a difference every day.

What's the best advice you ever received?

My college tennis coach told me to stay focused on business courses for there was no way I was ever going to earn a dollar playing tennis (or golf)!

What's the worst advice you ever received?

To tell all I knew about a candidate to succeed me. After considerable persuasion by a former chairman, I finally relented and told him what I knew about a candidate the board was considering to succeed me. They hired him anyway and then told him the confidential information I had shared. The next time we met he was very unhappy with me. Ouch!

Describe your leadership style in five words or less.

Trust and support good people.

You can have dinner with one person from history. Whom would you choose and why?

Will Rogers. His keen interest in the news, and especially in politics is one I share. His ability to sift through it all, have fun with it, and articulate his point of view in a simple, straightforward method is one I admired. I believe we would laugh a lot over dinner.

What's your personal motto?

To thine own self be true. If you can look in the mirror each morning and know you've done the absolute best job you can, that you have given it your all, you have placed the welfare of others above your own, and that your integrity is beyond reproach, you're true to yourself. That is how I try to approach every day.