Duerr Out as NASCUS President/CEO; Fortney to Handle Post in Interim

ARLINGTON, Va. – After 10 years of serving as president/CEO of NASCUS, Doug Duerr was dismissed from the position July 29 by the five members of the association’s regulator executive committee. The five members include NASCUS Chair Jerrie Lattimore, administrator, North Carolina Credit Union Division; James Forney, superintendent of credit unions, Iowa; Roger Little, credit union division director, Michigan; Pat Murphy, assistant commissioner, credit union division, Department of Financial Institutions, Tennessee; and Ginger Larson, director, Office of Credit Unions, Wisconsin. Effective Aug. 1, Mary Martha Fortney, vice president, state regulatory affairs, was named acting president/CEO of NASCUS until a new president/CEO is selected. The move, which was described as “a surprise” by state-chartered credit union representatives Credit Union Times spoke with, including some of the four members of the NASCUS Council Executive Committee, came one month after the NASCUS Board and Council Board held their respective meetings in Vail, Colo. and two months before the association holds its annual conference there. Lattimore said Duerr’s removal resulted from the “executive committee vote to have new leadership.” At press time, she said no selection committee had been organized to find a new president/CEO for NASCUS, and she “had no idea who will be on it.” Lattimore also said it had not yet been determined if a target date had been set for when NASCUS wants to name a new president. Fortney told Credit Union Times she intends to formally apply for the permanent position of president/CEO, and she stressed that “we are taking care of our business and competently serving our leadership and membership.” Duerr came on board as NASCUS president/CEO in 1993. Before working at NASCUS he worked as director of government affairs and vice president of corporate affairs for the Indiana Credit Union League, and he was the founding CEO of Indy Corp FCU. Starting in the late 1970s and continuing for 10 years, he headed up CUNA’s governmental affairs activities working as a registered lobbyist for the association and vp of political affairs. Duerr also worked for three years with the California Credit Union League as their vp of government relations. Immediately prior to coming to NASCUS, Duerr ran his own Los Angeles, Calif.-based public affairs firm, Duerr and Associates. Looking back over the years he spent working at NASCUS and recounting the people he’s worked with over the years, Duerr said he has no regrets. “Every job comes to an end sometime and in one way or another. Trade association work is notorious for testing the limits of relationships and frankly, 10 years is understood as a stretch of the probabilities,” he said. Duerr sees himself continuing to work in the credit union industry, particularly among state-chartered credit unions which, he said, “need to look at the big opportunities in other states and learn how to posture themselves to take advantage of these opportunities. There are a number of vehicles state-chartered credit unions could tap into. State-chartered credit unions have 48 regulatory business models to look at, counting NCUA and the 47 state regulators. They don’t have to limit themselves to what’s just within their own state.” He opined that state-chartered credit unions “have become parochial and tend to look at what they’re entitled to do within their state boundaries. It’s hard for them to trust business models in other states. State-chartered credit unions need to learn more from each other. There’s a great opportunity for a better exchange of information. There’s a whole world out there that’s changing and is affording credit union new opportunities.” [email protected]