The Decade of Dan Berger

In the summer of 2013, Dan Berger had already worked at NAFCU for a number of years and walked out of the office at the end of a work day as EVP. The next day, Berger walked back into NAFCU’s offices as president/CEO.

There were no “Who’s the new guy?” whispers from employees. Berger already knew where the office supplies, coffee and bathrooms were – so he immediately got to work.

Ten years in and Berger has witnessed many credit union victories, some setbacks and a pile of accolades during his leadership tenure at NAFCU.

CU Times called in to speak with Berger for a one-on-one interview, which kicked off with a brief discussion of the TV show “Yellowstone.”

“I put it off for a long time to watch it. I said, ‘OK, fine I’ll watch it!’ and it just sucked me in, man. It’s such a great show!” Berger said.

Berger has purposefully built this type of openness and approachability for himself and his team over the years as part of his vision for the organization.

During our 30-minute discussion, Berger reflected on the past 10 years and the advice he received when he first sat in the CEO chair, as well as the challenges and areas of focus that lie ahead for him and NAFCU. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

CU Times: What was that first day like for you as NAFCU’s CEO?

Berger: I remember walking in and thinking of all the stuff that I had to do. I had been at NAFCU for almost seven years prior to being appointed CEO, so I knew NAFCU very well. But I really wanted to focus on taking it to the next level and really getting a better understanding of the business side of it. I had a pretty good grasp of it, but until you’re in the chair, it’s just a different feeling. I won’t say it was overwhelming, but everything that I wanted to do … the to-do list got really, really long, and trying to prioritize that was overwhelming.

CU Times: Did you have any help in those first days getting yourself acclimated to the leadership role?

Berger: I had a cabal of trade association CEOs, you know, five or six of them that I met with, not in the financial services industry, but they had been trade association executives for quite a long time – and they were my sounding board and very helpful. I also had an executive coach, John Spence. He really helped me in terms of trying to change and improve the culture at NAFCU and you know, smooth out some of my rough edges and [learn] how to communicate better and things like that. The trying to create a priority of all the things that I wanted to accomplish was a little overwhelming, but it was exciting – it was an exciting time! As my colleagues will tell you, I’m a big white boarder. So I spent the first few days just whiteboarding the to-do list that I had created and just started from there.

CU Times: From EVP to CEO, what’s the biggest difference between those jobs?

Berger: Just the realization that when you get the CEO chair that you’re ultimately responsible for absolutely everything. And the NAFCU board does a wonderful job of holding the staff accountable for different things, but you’re in charge of absolutely everything. And so prioritizing all the things that we needed to do or wanted to do made me gasp a little bit. But we went to work right away.

CU Times: Do you recall what the big advocacy issues were when you first became CEO?

Berger: Most of it was the fallout from Dodd-Frank and those issues, and helping our members get through all the rules that were promulgated and continue to be promulgated, quite frankly. But that was our focus, making sure that we were on top of all the changes that were coming down from the CFPB and the NCUA, and other regulators and agencies. But more importantly, [we focused on] being really, really responsive to our members. We beefed up the compliance division and hired a couple more compliance attorneys to help NAFCU members get through that difficult time.

CU Times: Do you reflect back on those early days of Dodd-Frank?

Berger: Yeah, we have war stories and things that occurred behind the scenes and stuff like that, that we talk about and I reflect on. But it was an extremely difficult time and we were so close to, to getting credit unions exempted from the CFPB and things along those lines. And for us to get swept up with all the predatory lenders and the Wall Street banks and all that, it was a difficult time. We did some tweaks around the edges [of the Dodd-Frank Act] if I recall. But yeah, it was all hands on deck for a couple years. It was one of the busiest times in my entire career. I mean, it was really intense.

CU Times: Do you feel like that was a major setback or are setbacks just part of the job?

Berger: Yeah, it was part of the job at the time. And I’ll flip into the other question. You’re asking about setbacks and stuff, and it [a major setback] was probably the passing of the Durbin Amendment and interchange. That was a huge loss for the financial services industry and I took that personally as well, because I knew how devastating it would be from a non-interest income standpoint for credit unions and other financial institutions. That setback still bothers me to this day.

CU Times: Between 2013 and 2023, what feels different for you and your job?

Berger: The speed of change of technology and the speed of change of some of the rules being promulgated, everything seems to be quicker; and you just have to be on top of the technology changes. I mean, fintech is huge! Granted, it’s a commoditized term at this point, and it means different things to different people. But there’s always a new fintech being created in some kid’s garage in Palo Alto looking to try and take market share from credit unions and other financial institutions. So those things we have to monitor on a constant basis and try to make sure they’re part of a regulatory schematic that credit unions and banks are under as well so they’re not just going out there and being harmful to consumers. But everything’s faster. Everything’s rapid. Everything’s quick. I mean, 10 years ago it was not this fast. Everything’s fast!

CU Times: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen at NAFCU?

Berger: I think the biggest change for me is we’ve been hyper-focused on improving the culture at NAFCU. And that means really taking care of staff. Because if I take care of staff, I take care of my colleagues and they in turn take care of our members. And it has worked! We’re far from perfect, but I think we have a strong, robust culture here and that’s something that we work on, on a daily basis, and we talk about it in the management team meetings all the time. And that’s the biggest change, really diving in and creating a culture that my colleagues are proud of.

CU Times: What are you proud of?

Berger: Probably our membership growth and being responsive to the members. If you go back even before you came to writing about us, we really stripped down. As you’re probably well aware, trade associations in Washington, D.C. have a tendency to try to be all things to all people. And so part of the change that we did is we went through and looked at all the products and services that we offered and asked, ‘Are they really helping our members? What do we want to focus on?’ And so we stripped it down to three things: Advocacy, compliance assistance and education, and training. And that’s it! If it doesn’t fall in those three buckets, we just don’t do it anymore.

CU Times: How do you feel 10 years in?

Berger: Oh, I feel awesome! I think I have the best job in Washington, D.C. It [the job] has all the elements that I enjoy and I get to do it for an industry that is absolutely terrific!