This week, Mark Brennan joins Mark to discuss his incredible journey in the credit union industry, from the highs and lows to his experiences in leadership and the transition into retirement. Mark’s had a remarkable career, spending nearly 27 years with Clearview Federal Credit Union, including 17 years as CEO, where he brought his unique HR and strategic planning background to the role. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [2:53] Mark Brennan shares his background with US Airways and Clearview Federal Credit Union
• [7:59] The credit union was presented as a company benefit
• [17:36] Changing the name of the credit union and welcoming the community-required education
• [23:05] Collaborating with other credit unions and succession planning
• [29:16] Mark advises C-Suite people wanting to move forward
• [31:00] Mark shares his retirement lifestyle and his parting thoughts on the credit union industry

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Presenting a credit union as an employee benefit highlights its value and encourages employees to explore how it can support their financial well-being
• Credit unions prioritize community over competition, collaborating to strengthen local support, unlike banks that often focus on acquisitions
• Working at a credit union can be deeply fulfilling. Mark Brennan reflects fondly on his time at Clearview Federal Credit Union, sharing that the relationships with his coworkers and the supportive environment made it the highlight of his career

RESOURCE LINKS

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

Applied Valuation Services - Website

Mark Brennan - LinkedIn

Mark Ritter: Hello, this is Mark Ritter, your host of Conversations. Credit union conversations and CEO of MBFS. Thank you for joining me. And if anybody out there needs help and assistance with business lending, helping your members any way you can, uh, maybe you're having a bump in the road these days with business lending or the regulators, or want to expand your program, diversify things up, check me out, check MBFS out, we'd love to help you.

Uh, and if there's anything people can learn, uh, and tips and tricks from that, uh, and from what they bring to the table. Rather than just, you know, do a bring in a vendor of the day and having a little bit of a commercial. Uh, boy, that drives me nuts and it probably drives you nuts too. So today, joining me is Mark Brennan, retired CEO of Clearview Federal Credit Union out in Western Pennsylvania.

And, uh, you know, I, I joke. Uh, offline to, to mark, uh, for our listeners that this was his opportunity to rant against anything he's ever wanted to say. But of course he won't do that, uh, because it's, uh, he, he has been such a, a positive contribution to our industry. So, so Mark kind of give people a little bit of, of your story, uh, and a little bit of your, You know, that career bio on from a high level on who you are and what, what

Mark Brennan: you, what you did.

Um, but I spent, like I said, 27 years with Clearview with about 17 of those as the CEO. Prior to that, I had worked for, um, US Airways. And that was the actual, our field of membership when I first got to Clearview. And then prior to that, I had worked in some academia as well. Um, but again, I was fortunate when I got to Clearview that I had some mentors, you know, president and executive VP that took me as part of the strategic planning background, which I have, um, which again, Was, was helpful to me.

Mark Ritter: So let me dig a little more. So before credit unions a lifelong Uh Pittsburgh guy in Western Pennsylvania, and you were working for U. S. Airways at the time. And to set the, set the tone for, for those listeners who only know four airlines, you know, U. S. Airways at the time, considerably a massive airline relative to the industry, correct?

That is correct. And the, and the base was Pittsburgh. Well, it was the base Pittsburgh or they had a quite a bit of a presence in Pittsburgh.

The U S airways was a bigger one. They merged Piedmont credit union, or excuse me, Piedmont airline in. They had merged PSA on the West Coast and a couple other ones up in New York and so forth, before they then were acquired by American Airlines, which, you know, American Airlines now is part of what US Airways was.

Mark Ritter: And, and, and at the time you were in the HR planning, uh, operate, you know, administrative world at US Airways. And, and, and, and That was the main driver or the driver for the credit union. What was the conversations like? And talk me through going from the credit union, uh, or from your employer group, us airways to the credit union.

So my very first savings account was at a credit union. So I probably had it in my blood and didn't realize I had it in my blood. But when I worked for the airline, since I did HR, Did a lot of hiring, recruiting and so forth. But I also, because I have a benefits background as well, I was able to do the orientations for the airline employees, which exposed me a lot to the credit union.

So when the opportunity came, the credit union was looking to establish their own human resources function. Um, I guess I was one of the first people they called since they had a lot of interaction with me and it was a pretty good marriage together and it was a good opportunity for me to move at the time.

To give everybody that life lesson of how tight the integration was between an employer group and the credit union versus today.

And actually back in those days, the credit union was actually on site. At many of the airline locations. We were in the hangers. We were in different stations. We were in the reservation center. We had an office in each of those locations, and so it was integrated quite a bit. I mean, you were part of the airline in our case, and like I said, it wasn't employee benefits.

So when you did an orientation, you talked about, you know, here's your payroll. Here's your health care. Here's your credit union and we'd get you to sign up at that time as part of that. So the integration was there because we were physically in the office with the airline, as well as having a credit union office besides that.

Mark Ritter: Yeah. And I've, uh, other employee, I've, I've heard the stories of, okay, it's your first day at work. Here's your paperwork, fill out your member account and let's roll on.

Mark Brennan: Yeah, we, we, again, I think us airways had an outstanding relationship with the credit union at the time. So anytime the airline was doing anything, you know, uh, Fair play benefits fair. We always included the credit union. So again, I was fortunate to be exposed, you know, from the airline side of directly with the credit union.

So I think it made my transition over to the credit union, uh, a much easier transition because I understood the inner workings of the credit union in new. I knew the CEO. I knew the executive team as well before I even moved in there.

So you had access to everybody

Mark Brennan: at an excellent point. Our payroll came from the airline, our benefits. Even the flying benefits from the airline, the credit union employees had those for a good period of time. So, any healthcare or anything I had was the same as an employee at the credit union had the exact same as what was at the airline, our parent company as well.

So, and they did our payroll. For a good bit of time, one of the reasons why I transitioned over to the credit union was that relationship was starting to change because the airline was looking to move out of the Pittsburgh area. They were looking for merger partners and so it gave me the opportunity without me having to move to one of the other locations with the airline.

I stayed in my house and just moved over to the credit union.

In the regulatory structure of the audit relation, the audits, the relationships with the N. C. U. A. When you look back compared to today's world, what were some of those things that people just wouldn't believe or or some of the stark differences?

Mark Brennan: Well, initially, and you may not want to hear this, but initially, the N.

Became much stricter. Um, and I think a lot of that came just even from the banking side, they were having bank failures and so forth. So it kind of fell to credit unions as well. And I think credit unions were a lot stronger, a lot more stable, did not take a high risk as far as some of the investments or some of the lending side of it and so forth.

So the regulatory, as time rolled on, it got more challenging. It truly did. And, um, you know, initially it was a good relationship. They made sure that our policies were in place and all of that. But after a while, um, boy, they tell you one year, this is what you want to do. And then they'd come back the next year and say, why are you doing it that way?

Mark Ritter: Well, at the time, there was probably 10, 12, 15, 000 credit unions compared to 4, 500 today. And what I have seen is that, you know, we have fewer credit unions, larger credit unions, more sophisticated credit unions. And many times the staff and particularly the N. C. U. A., they were jack of all trades at the time.

Mark Brennan: right in looking? You're, you're actually right on the nose and you're correct.

As we at Clearview became more sophisticated, offered additional service, went into the, the commercial lending and the commercial deposits and also did a lot of online types of programs and so forth. Yes, we were scrutinized a lot. More in detail. And as we grew, we did become a little more complex and your point is extremely well taken.

It's. It's. The staff and the management team that I had around me, you know, they, they knew how to deal with the regulatories. We also had two previous regulators working for us. You know, they were two N2A regulators that we had hired on staff. Both of those were there before I got there. So they also kind of had a better understanding of what was expected during an exam.

And that really did help us to prepare for an exam.

Mark Brennan: It was April Fool's Day, no less. Yeah. It was my start date.

And he looks at me like I'm talking gibberish because he goes, what are you talking about? I go anywhere. And I try to explain to him that Pittsburgh back in those days was not Pittsburgh that you see today. Um, The world has changed quite a bit and, and, and speaking of there was dozens of airlines and you, you saw the consolidation of airlines in the industry shifts.

What was it like during that time?

Mark Brennan: And it was a challenge. I used to always say we did the trifecta. We changed our name. We changed our field of membership from a single sponsor to a community base and we changed our management team. That's, that's an opportunity that I became the CEO. Um, don't always recommend doing the trifecta like that, but there was a lot of education.

S. Airways airline employees. We were now serving, um, 10 communities, 10 counties in the Western Pennsylvania area, which was our field of membership. We had to go in to each of those. Those locations and explain who we were and what the opportunity was, how these folks could join the credit union. You know, they kept saying, well, I don't work for the airline.

And so you had to, we had to do a lot of education. And I think one of the things that we did a lot of, Mark, that really helped us was get very involved in those communities. There were several communities before we even planted a flag that we were going to put a location in there. We were involved with our Oktoberfest.

I mean, one thing I'm really proud of. There was a, a location that we had, and when we did our ribbon cutting, we had the mayor there, we had the, you know, police chief and everything, and the mayor goes, Uh, we knew all about Clearview before, you know, we even did this ribbon cutting, and I asked, oh, are you a member?

Be involved, you know, and that made our transition into that community so much easier, you know, we didn't have people fight the banks might not like because we were competing with them at that time and we were a large enough credit you that we offered similar services that they did. So that was probably, you know, the, the biggest transition was we went from going over to the hangar of an airline to being in the community.

And, and getting our name out there and getting our people involved.

Mark Ritter: Yeah. At the time, you know, there was probably 200 credit unions in Western Pennsylvania at some point. Uh, and, and we've seen the consolidation and Clearview has really stood out. As as significantly larger than number two or three or four or five in the region.

So it's people. If you're part of that, people will support you versus, uh, you know, new bank coming in from New York city.

Mark Brennan: And that's true. And again, we had to explain the name, which actually came from our membership. And one point that I want to make to one of the challenges that we had was when we transitioned from a single sponsor to a community based, we had challenges from the credit unions, they all thought, and I'm going to show my age here.

They all thought we're going to be Pac Man and we're going to gobble everyone up. And that really wasn't our philosophy. If anything, our philosophy was, was to be a partner with these other credit unions. I did over 20 mergers, you know, during my, my tenure. And most of those mergers came from us, um, showing them our policies, handling policies.

I mean, you know, some people say, well, that's your competition. We said, no, they're all part of our same credit union industry. Um, we want to help them. The better we can make them, the better will happen. And that's how we got a lot of the mergers because after we helped them with a lot of things. They then came to us and says, you know what?

You know, there weren't many over a hundred million, to be quite honest with you.

Mark Ritter: My, my former, uh, CEO and somebody who I consider a mentor who you you've known well, Bob Marquette, who unfortunately is no longer with us today is the reason I, I am with QSOS because he had a policy and would always tell me when we, I first started working there.

You help any credit union. You come in, you share, do whatever you need to, to help them out. And I really enjoyed working with all of these other credit unions and getting to know people and friends. Uh, I remember when I was at Members First and, you know, when Clearview Business Lending started and Wayne Grinick came out, we shared everything we could with them.

Mark Brennan: Boy, what a, what a great explanation. And yeah, Bob Marquette, what a great guy. Enjoyed talking to you. Every time I was with him, besides the knowledge he had, he had such a great wit and humor, but QSOS, I'm happy you brought the QSOS up. That was one of the things that we did start in Western Pennsylvania.

We did it with an indirect lending, we did it with a member business lending, and we tried some other opportunities. And the reason was is, um, You know, we should work together to, to, to benefit the consumer, to benefit our members is what we were trying to do. And, um, I have some friends that are bankers and they couldn't believe that we would establish, you know, credit union service organizations.

And so his expertise, he could then. Give, go to these other credit unions and it gave the other credit unions, you know, another opportunity to attract members, you know, new members, business members, and then get the personal side of it. So I'm a extremely strong proponent of QSOs, um, in the appropriate location and so forth.

I do think that the collaboration is an outstanding way of us doing our business.

Mark Brennan: Well, I guess my human resources background, I always had. Succession planning was always something I always did, no matter where I worked, even when I worked for the airline, and when I first came to the credit union as well, I always tried to mentor folks, because I knew someone would replace me eventually, and, you know, I had that in the human resources side, so when I had the opportunity to move forward, I had a person in human resources to step right in, she had been working with me for a few years, probably did things, not probably, did things better than I did, um, in doing that, but, Um, yeah, I got to the point.

He was nine years younger than me, so I mentored him enough. That I knew that when I was ready to step away, he would be the person that would replace me. And while we, I was mentoring him, we then mentored a level below that, you know, to somebody else. And she was an opportunity that You know, we could educate her on how to interact with the board and how to do all of those types of things.

So I got us to a certain level. Um, Asset wise, I was about 400 million in assets when I took over a CEO and we actually sold off some of our assets. I wanted to get over a billion. Um, I got us to about 1. 3 billion and then it was time to step away. I have, I have a father that's still alive at the age of 96.

And I was never intimidated by somebody that knew more than me because they made me look good. And that might have been a challenge. So, through my process, I had mentored someone and then we had mentored another level. The individual that replaced me stayed about five years. He did so well. He had another opportunity to go to another credit union, but that second person that we were mentoring, she is now the CEO of Clearview and, um, can't be more proud to see what they're doing and how they've moved it forward.

So I just think at all levels, you know, if you're a manager, find your best employee and try to mentor them up. Um, because they're going to replace you someday and you'll be proud to sit back and look at all of that.

Mark Ritter: So there are fewer CEO opportunities. These are. You know, I always say we almost, in today's world, we almost have to look at those, any of that C level senior executive opportunities with the size of some credit unions.

Mark Brennan: I really suggest to any C suite people that want to move forward in the organization is, is really get yourself involved, get yourself involved in any way possible.

And they need someone to volunteer to help, you know, raise your hand saying, I want to learn about that. Um, I think that's the critical piece that you want to do is the more you learn about the organization, it makes you a more valuable employee as you move forward. And as I said at the outset, I was a non traditional CEO, you know, most CEOs don't come from the ranks of your human resources people and so forth.

So again, I, you know, I've always. Said that I also say to everybody new, find a mentor, find someone that you respect, someone that you know, um, can guide you and, and, you know, take you down the proper path, you know, and some of my mentors, I learned a lot from my mentors and what not to do. You know, and I think mentors can help you in both ways as far as, you know, the good way of going and then some things my style is completely different than the two previous CEOs that we had a clear view and that's okay because it worked out for all of us as well.

Mark Ritter: So you mentioned that you might have left a year too early. Which I think is leaving, uh, kind of like football. It's much better to leave a year or two early than a year or two late. So what are you up to today? What keeps you busy? What, what, what

I'm, I still serve on a, it's called variety of the children's charity. It's a charity for disabled children. And I'm a treasurer on that board. And I've been on that board for probably about 15, 20 years. And, and I don't have children of my own, but they're my kids. They're my variety kids. And I do that. I still serve on a hospital board.

It was, I was on a smaller hospital. We merged with a larger hospital and I remained on the board. So I still have done that. I'm also on an advisory board for an appraisal management company. Um, my role in that job, typically it's not even a job, uh, because I don't get paid for it. But, um, it's just introducing them to credit unions.

They've had several banks that they do a lot of things with their appraisal, you know, like I said, appraisal management company, but I've gotten them involved in several credit unions throughout, you know, the country since they're able to do, uh, both real estate, uh, appraisals as well as commercial appraisals and so forth throughout.

Mark Brennan: Yeah. It's Applied Valuation Services, even though they're based out of Pittsburgh, they are, uh, they are licensed in all 50 states and so forth. So, and I appreciate Mark, you know, your folks gave us the opportunity to at least, you know, get on your list.

You know, and that's all we, it's all that they asked to do. And, and I have a lot of respect for the CEO and their business development manager and so forth, because they really have a ton of experience in, in the appraisal business. So really all I am is somebody to open the door for them. And then they step through in doing all of that.

And for a fun thing that I do, I'm actually as a part time job, I worked on at the PPG paints arena, which is where our hockey team plays, you know, the Pittsburgh penguins and so forth. And we had a good game last evening and we won in overtime. So I enjoy the, I enjoy the game of hockey. I enjoy entertainment.

Mark Ritter: more to enjoy

Mark Brennan: yourself. Exactly. Like you, I don't try to sit still. I don't think I could sit still for a while.

And, uh, and like I said, my father is 96 years old, a healthy 96 years old. So I get to spend some time with him and that's why I enjoy my retirement. I still have the big smile on my face, um, where a lot of people are going to work in that snow and in that rain and everything, and I get to stay home and enjoy myself.

Mark Ritter: Well, Mark, thank you so much for joining me today. Uh, I, the floor is yours. If you were to give some parting words and some advice that'll last on the internet for a long time, uh, to those in the credit union business or the NCUA, those involved peripherally, you know, kind of give us your parting words that'll live for eternity.

Um, that you have working for you are there for the right reasons. I mean, I'm a credit union member. I was before I will be forever. And so to me, that is, it is one of the best industries. I was fortunate to work in academia. I was fortunate to work in the airline, great industries, but the credit union industry is, is the best.

Obviously spending over 27 years with the credit union tells you that I enjoyed that. The regular regulators trust, trust the experts. You know, if I'm going to say anything, I mean, the regulators, I know they have their role, they're doing what they do. They do a fine, a very good job, but sometimes trust in the experts that we have it, and even out to board of directors, you know, board of directors are volunteers.

You don't always see that in those Most businesses, when I worked for the airline, if you told them what you were doing, you went and changed, or you told them the opposite of what you're doing. Not in Cratons, we are so willing to share. So it's been a wonderful career. I mean, I miss the people, you know, people that I worked with and so forth.

I'm enjoying team to ball up every once in a while too. So.

Mark Ritter: Joining me today was Mark Brennan, retired CEO of Clearview Federal Credit Union in Western Pennsylvania. Uh, I really thank him for, for helping out and wit and wisdom and catching up and, uh, hopefully you were able to pick up a few pointers today, uh, you know, learn some perspective on our industry, uh, career advice.

Thank you and have a good day.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to the Credit Union Conversations podcast. Have a question? Visit markritter. com for more information.