ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – John Radebaugh, president and CEO of the New Mexico Credit Union League, has been tapped to take over the top staff job at the North Carolina Credit Union League effective at yearend. Radebaugh, 50, has been named president-elect of the North Carolina League to start in early October. He will succeed Larry Johnson who is retiring after 25 years in the North Carolina post and 36 years serving in League management. A native of Florida, Radebaugh has been with the New Mexico League for three years and previously held senior staff jobs at the Kansas Credit Union Association in Topeka. "I have enjoyed working with all of the state's credit unions and I love living in New Mexico," Radebaugh said of his time with NMCUL. "I'm excited about my new job and the opportunities it will present, but I am also sad to leave." Prior to joining the NMCUL, Radebaugh held senior management and lobbying posts with the Kansas CU Association from 1993 to 2000. Phyllis Crawford, chairman of the 54-member NMCUL and president of Navajo Mine Credit Union of Kirtland, said a search committee has been organized to find a replacement for Radebaugh. "It's a nice bump up for John joining a League with 160 members and a higher salary," commented Christopher T. Jillson, immediate past chairman of the League adding, "We seem to be a training ground for League presidents" referring to the departure in 2000 of Roshara Holub, who took over as CEO of the Missouri Credit Union System. Jillson is president of Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union, whose human resources department has offered the League help in recruiting a new CEO, said Crawford. A search firm was considered, but it was decided to employ Sandia's help, she said. Meanwhile, Crawford said the League is planning a September groundbreaking for a new 5,500 square-foot headquarters building to open in January in northeast Albuquerque. The new facility, to be located in a business/hotel complex known as the Journal Center and which will house the League's nine full-time staffers, replaces the League's present Albuquerque site-a cinder block building "with no parking"-it has occupied for 20 years. "We have simply outgrown that building and needed a new site to expand," said Crawford. As if dj vu, the present headquarters building has been sold to a group of psychologists. Before taking over the Indian School Rd. building, the facility was the home of a doctors' group. -

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