GREENSBORO, N.C. – It's never easy succeeding someone who waswith an organization or business for many years and left theirmark. Sometimes the best tactic a successor can take is to do theirown thing, and that's just what Sam Whitehurst, Summit CU's newpresident/CEO intends to do. The 40-year old Whitehurst, formerlypresident/CEO of Winston-Salem City Employees CU, succeeded 78-yearold Elizabeth `Sis' Hamilton who worked at the $98 million creditunion for 60 years and retired as its president/CEO on August 31.Whitehurst's first day at Summit was Sept. 2. “I know I've replaceda legend and I'm proud of Sis' legacy, but I'm not limited by it,”says Whitehurst. “The financial services arena is changing sorapidly, there's lots for me to do.” Hamilton continues to serve onSummit's Board, as its treasurer, but Whitehurst says she's noton-site at the credit union. When he spoke with Credit Union Times,Whitehurst had been on the job going on two weeks. He was stillfinding his way around cartons, both his and Hamilton's – she wasan admitted packrat – as well as commuting to Summit fromWinston-Salem. He plans to move to Greensboro with his wife Aprilof seven years and their two sons, five-year old Quay and Chase,three-years old. For the time being he's acclimating to heading upa credit union that's twice as big and has more than three times asmany members as Winston-Salem City ECU – $45 million in assets and6,300 members. Whitehurst is undaunted. A big advocate of usingtechnology to achieve operational efficiency, he's looking forwardto increasing Summit's technology-based product offering withservices like a debit card program and an Intranet. “Members areincreasingly demanding multiple delivery channels and technology isa big part of that. We have to be able to give members what theywant,” he says. Although Winston-Salem is smaller than Summit,Whitehurst says “the credit union is very advanced for its size.”For example, the credit union has an imaging and optical storagesystem, a “robust” Intranet, and an in-house MCIF system. “Thecredit union managed to do a lot of neat things on a shoe-stringbudget,” he says. “Summit has some technology, but it can still domore. I don't think they've used technology to its fullest capacityyet. There's a lot of off-the-shelf products out there that we cando amazing things with.” Whitehurst says one of his strengths issolving puzzles, and he wants to leverage that strength, combine itwith technology and “create a service friendly environment forSummit's members.” After being in his new job at Summit for only ashort time, Whitehurst wasn't the only one at the credit union whowas going through an adjustment. The credit union's staff was alsogetting used to working with a new president. Whitehurst says“everyone at the credit union is comfortable with the transition.”“This isn't about me,” he says. “I'm more inclined to be here tohelp the staff, the credit union and its members.” -

[email protected]