Fox Communities CU CXO Believes in ‘Building Bench Strength and Successors’

Name: Tommie Preslaski

Credit union: Fox Communities Credit Union ($2.9 billion, Appleton, Wis.)

Title: Chief Experience Officer

Number of years at current credit union: Seven months

Educational background: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

CU Times: What are your key responsibilities in your current role?

Preslaski: My current role as Chief Experience Officer oversees all member facing aspects of our retail delivery which includes our 22 branches, retail operations, member support center and digital services. I’m responsible for leading the charge in developing the next generation of the member experience and driving initiatives from concept through implementation to ensure we have the products and services to best help our members succeed financially.

CU Times: What drew you to the credit union industry?

Preslaski: The culture of caring, putting members first and the commitment to the community is what drew me to the credit union industry. The core credit union values align deeply with my beliefs and passions.

CU Times: What unique skills, experience and attributes do you bring to your role?

Preslaski: I’m lucky to have experience in both large and small financial institutions. I started my financial career with the largest bank in America. They taught me structure, diligence and the power of an effective conversation model. I then spent nearly 15 years in my next role with a smaller financial institution. This gave me the opportunity to work in a variety of different positions and wear a lot of different hats. I was able to hone my skills in multiple areas including leadership, strategy, execution, relationship building, communication, driving efficiency and effectively leading change.

CU Times: Which person (or people) do you credit the most for helping and supporting you along your career journey?

Preslaski: I can’t credit just one person with helping and supporting my career journey. I’ve been blessed with many strong leaders and mentors over the last 20-plus years in the financial industry. Those individuals helped me in a variety of different ways. They believed in me and gave me opportunities when I didn’t have the background and experience. They challenged me to take on additional opportunities to continue to learn and grow. They showed me the importance of never backing down from a challenge and how to respectfully stand up for what I believe in, even if it isn’t the most popular opinion.

CU Times: What are some of the biggest differences between working in your current executive level role and your previous, non-executive roles?

Preslaski: I love the collaborative approach at the executive level of Fox. It’s not top-down leadership where you are just told what to do. Here we truly value diverse ideas and bring the executive team together to ensure our priorities align with the future vision of the organization to help us achieve our goals. I’ve been in non-executive roles in banks where the shareholder and bottom line drove all decisions. It’s rewarding to be at a credit union where our members and providing them with value and the right tools to succeed drives our decisions.

CU Times: What’s a challenge you faced when you first joined your executive team, and how did you overcome it?

Preslaski: The biggest challenge that I faced when joining the executive team was replacing an individual who had spent 30-plus years with the organization. She had a great reputation and took a lot of pride in what she had created. To overcome the challenges of both being new to the organization and coming into a newly-created position, it was important that I spent time really listening to the team and honoring the past. I needed to understand why we do things the way that we do before coming in and trying to change all the processes and structures that they had in place.

CU Times: How would you describe your current leadership style?

Preslaski: I lean toward a more transformational leadership style. My goal is to remain agile and growth focused while encouraging my team to step out of their comfort zone. I encourage them to look for new ways to drive efficiencies and improve our current process to provide the best possible experience for our members and team members. I value their thoughts and ideas so I really try to empower them to be creative and part of the process to find a solution we are all excited about.

CU Times: Do you approach your job any differently now compared to how you did pre-pandemic? If yes, how so?

Preslaski: The biggest change from pre- to post-pandemic was my realization of how much can get done when you have the right team, regardless of where you are located (remote or in person). The pandemic propelled us years forward in terms of technology and made us come up with creative solutions to serve our members and support our team members in ways that we continue to use today. We would have eventually gotten there, but the pandemic forced us to provide alternate channel solutions much faster than we otherwise would have.

CU Times: What’s next for you on your executive career journey? Do you have any specific career goals you’re working toward?

Preslaski: Being new to my role, credit unions and Fox, I don’t have specific career advancement goals at the moment. My biggest goals are to continue developing the tremendous talent that we have within the organization and ensure they are placed in the right positions to help us support our members. I also want to ensure we continue to look for technologies to meet our members where they are at in their financial journey and prevent them from feeling like they need to go to another financial institution to achieve their goals.

CU Times: What big-picture impact do you hope to make within your credit union, as well as for your members and community?

Preslaski: I’m really passionate about and look forward to further developing our ability to deliver financial education to the communities we serve. The statistics are staggering for the number of individuals who struggle with their finances and the impact it has on their jobs and personal life. There will be a tremendous impact by increasing our ability to deliver meaningful education and resources in our communities and to our members who need it most.

CU Times: What career advice would you give your younger self?

Preslaski: I would tell my younger self that relationship building and taking care of my team will always serve me well. Often when we are young, we are in a race to move up quickly. We think that keeping our best people on our team will help us succeed. I’ve found that being a collaborative partner and always doing the right thing for my people (even if it means losing them to another team or role) always comes full circle and is the right thing to do to keep and develop talent.

It’s also important to build a strong team and not feel threatened by surrounding yourself with great talent. You are doing your job right if you are building bench strength and successors.

Would you or someone you know like to share your journey to credit union leadership? Please reach out to Natasha Chilingerian at nchilingerian@cutimes.com. To qualify, the individual must be a part of a credit union’s leadership team or C-suite, and have a compelling story to share about their rise to their current leadership role.