If you want to understand why Susan Gruber is so good at her job as CFO of the Pleasanton, Calif.-based Patelco Credit Union, here are a few things you should know: She doesn’t tolerate silos. She isn’t afraid of hard conversations. And she’s something of a balance sheet whisperer.
These are some of the qualities that have helped Gruber, who is the winner of CU Times’ 2018 Trailblazer Award for CFO of the Year, put Patelco on an impressive growth trajectory to transform the heart and soul of the credit union. On her watch, assets have gone from about $4 billion when she joined in September 2014 to about $6 billion today, and membership has risen from 282,000 to 325,000.