GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–At its 2017 Leadership Conference, CU*Answers recognized Honor Credit Union as the winner of the 7th annual “Spirit of CU*Answers” award for its work on business intelligence and data analytics, while presenting its “Robert H. Mackay” Award to Dennis D. Degenhardt.
The $753-million Honor CU has a Business Intelligence team comprising five full-time professionals who are focused on data analysis. “Our BI team is tasked with finding the sometimes uncomfortable truths about our operation and our members, and our management team is responsible for listening to and finding a way to act on those insights, even if they challenge our current thinking,” said CEO Scott McFarland. “The team works to enhance the service to our members and the consumer by anticipating needs and helping our internal team with valuable data.”
The Spirit of CU*Answers award, established in 2011, recognizes a client credit union for excellence in a variety of areas. This year’s winner exemplified one of the main themes of the conference, which was manufacturing insight and inspiring data awareness as a currency. In the past the award has also allowed the CUSO to recognize credit unions who have strong volunteer programs, who’ve demonstrated particularly strong execution and performance or a high level of adoption of CU*Answers tools, who show innovative examples of collaboration and cooperation, who have found new ways to demonstrate commitment to the 7 Cooperative Principles, or who’ve started new businesses in the network.
Separately, Dennis D. Degenhardt, recently retired CEO of Glacier Hills CU, was recognized by CU*Answers as the 13th recipient of the Robert H. Mackay award at the 2017 CU*Answers Leadership Conference.
Recently retired as CEO of Glacier Hills CU in West Bend, Wisconsin, Degenhardt devoted 39 years to the credit union industry, starting as the teller of his local parish credit union while he was just in the 6th grade.
“This recognition from all of you as my peers means more to me than I can say,” said Degenhardt. “Working at a credit union never really felt like coming to work. I was privileged to work with so many great people who really cared about each other and our members.”