Michaels Named New CEO of Multibillion-Dollar CU

“I’m so excited about the opportunity and of course it’s very hard to leave Mazuma,” Michaels said. “I’ve made a lot of friends there and I have an incredible staff.”

Deonne Christensen, COO for the Overland Park, Kan.-based Mazuma CU, will serve as  interim CEO until a successor is named.

“JSC is NASA’s credit union and now they are a community credit union, so they have a really unique opportunity to leverage what (JSC CEO) Michael Brown has built over the last 32 years and really propel them,” Michaels said.

Brown is retiring at the end of this month.

In a CU Times July 2017 article about millennial CEOs, Michaels was successful in boosting the credit union’s young membership by more than 30%.

As part of setting the credit union’s vision, Michaels fashioned its culture as a little bit different, quirky and funny, which helped it stand out in a marketplace filled with financial institutions that seem to be the same brand of bland, boring and stuffy.

“We are one of the few credit unions to have a spokesperson [Mazuma Mike] who is a little quirky and kind of gets to the heart of what millennials fear and what millennials find funny. It’s about our happy brigade where we just pile into a car and go do good things in the community such as giving dance lessons to nursing home residents or giving cupcakes to construction workers downtown. I think it’s doing a spoof on the [TV game show] ‘Cash Cab,’” Michaels explained in the article. “I think just by being different and marketing ourselves differently, having a fresh brand, a fresh look, the way we talk, the way our website is and all of our branding material. All of that is just light and fresh and not old and stodgy.”

While Michaels said he understands that there may be baby boomer executives who may think the whole notion of culture, and being a little quirky and funny, is rather ridiculous and fluffy, no one can argue with Mazuma’s growth in assets, loans and members.

Under Michaels’ CEO tenure, Mazuma CU grew from $452 million in assets, $292 million in loans and 52,000 members in 2012 to its current $664 million in assets, $512 million in loans and more than 62,000 members. Mazuma is the fourth largest credit union by assets in Kansas.

“Brandon has been a tremendous asset in defining a vision for our robust future. We are privileged to have worked with a person like him and we understand his decision to pursue another growth opportunity,” Mazuma Board Chair Russ Petry said.  “We have a tremendous team at Mazuma and are confident that Mazuma will continue to be a catalyst to make Kansas City a better place.”