SEATTLE—William Longbrake has served on the boards of a half-dozen companies during his career, giving him significant perspective on just what a critical difference good governance can make.
Now he’ll be sharing that perspective with credit unions.
Bill Longbrake
Some of the lessons to be shared have been forged by difficult times, including being a long-time officer at a bank that at the time was the biggest failure in U.S. history.
Longbrake, a board member now at BECU and a former chief financial officer at Washington Mutual Bank, will be the keynote speaker at a symposium on board governance co-hosted by Lass Financial Advisory Services, LLC and the law firm of Foster Pepper here on Sept. 15. More information on the event can be had by emailing events@foster.com
The symposium is open to credit unions, but attendance is limited.
Longbrake, who currently is executive-in-residence at the Smith Business School at the University of Maryland, plans to split his talk into two parts. Firs, he will address organizational culture and the role of boards in “what makes for a strong and effective corporate culture.”
Longbrake believes the role of the board “is incredibly important in setting the tone” of a company, especially credit unions.
'Keepers of the Co-op'
“Credit union directors are keepers of the co-op,” he observed. “They have to make sure that the credit union serves the members.”
At the same time, the role of the traditional credit union board volunteer has been changing with a broader scope of responsibilities, including ensuring regulatory demands are being meet and oversight of expanded offerings such as mortgage lending and business loans is up to the task.
“You have a real duty to see your credit union is successful,” he said.
At BECU, movement toward a more “professional” board is securely in place. Directors are vetted to ensure they are qualified for their roles, once on the board “are not automatically assured of having another term,” he said.
The second part of his remarks will be a case study on, essetinally, behavior to avoid, based on his work at Washington Mutual (WaMu) from 1982 to 1994 and afterward during a stint as regulatory liaison between 2004 and 2008, when the $300-billion bank collapsed.
Longbrake says the ambitious acquisition strategy WaMu used to drive its growth can be divided into good and bad periods. It was good up until roughly 2002, when the focus was on acquiring thrift institutions. But then the bank changed strategy and began buying mortgage banking firms, which led to a “slippery slope” as the housing bubble grew, he explained.
“One thing led to another” as lenders raced for market share and origination volumes, a contest that eventually turned out to be “a race to the bottom,” he said.
Longbrake plans to draw from that experience as he speaks to attendees at the symposium.
A Distinguished Resume
Longbrake’s extensive resume includes a term as CFO at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., policy advisor for the Financial Services Roundtable, and director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. He has been at the University of Maryland since 2009, spending a week or so on campus each month while teaching, advising faculty and fundraising, among other duties.
He will be joined on the dais at the free Lass/Foster Pepper “Symposium on Current Issues in Credit Union Board Governance” by Bradley Thoreson, Foster Pepper attorney and Trustee of Seattle Pacific University; Steven Peltin, Foster Pepper attorney, chair of Foster Pepper’s Employment and Labor practice, and Board Secretary of Seattle Theatre Group; Parker Cann, former BECU senior vice president and general counsel; Rafael Stone, Foster Pepper attorney and Seattle Times board chair; and John Lass, President of Lass Advisory Services and former senior vice president of strategy at CUNA Mutual Group.
Sessions will include the board-management relationship; board composition and succession planning; board diversity; board assessments; the roles of the nominating, supervisory/audit committees, and others.
The event will be held at the Seattle offices of Foster Pepper from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM Sept. 15.
—Mark Fogarty