Bob Hamer settles in at Norlarco Credit Union

Bob Hamer hardly had to ponder his decision to take his finance-industry career to Northern Colorado.

“My choice was Orange County, Los Angeles or Fort Collins,” he said, referring to the jobs he could have taken. “My wife said she’d come to Fort Collins without me.”

Hamer became the president and CEO of Fort Collins-based Norlarco Credit Union in mid-August, filling the vacancy left by outgoing executive Chuck Mabry.

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Hamer has been in the financial services industry since 1974, starting in banks. Early in his career, Hamer almost left the industry to become a stockbroker.

“It’s one of those careers that you either love it or hate it,” he said.

Hamer didn’t love it, so he returned to banking, where he made a career of turning around banks on the verge of disaster through recapitalizations or sales. He admits the work was thrilling – seeing how much of a return he could help generate for shareholders. Hamer worked in banks until 1995 when he broke into the credit union business.

“I looked at credit unions in the past, but it was hard to get in because they don’t like those bankers,” he joked.

Hamer finally got in with a job at the credit union for IBM employees. He most recently worked at Mission Federal Credit Union in San Diego as the executive vice president. Mission Federal is one of the larger credit unions in the country, with assets of $1.97 billion and more than 136,000 members. By comparison, Norlarco is a small player. The credit union reported about $368 million in assets and 53,000 members at the end of June.

Hamer wasn’t looking to jump from one large credit union to another. What he was looking for, he explained, was an employee- and member-centric organization.

Amazing reception

Hamer was amazed by the reception he received when he came to Fort Collins to interview for the position. Not only did he meet the full board, but he also met about half of the credit union’s employees. In fact, a panel of eight employees was part of the interview process.

“It was one of those deals where you wonder, ‘Can people really be this nice?’,” he said.

But Hamer wasn’t receiving any preferential treatment. He was one of four finalists for the job, and the only non-local.

“Bob was the only one we had to pay long-distance travel for,” joked John Olienyk, Norlarco board member and senior associate dean of Colorado State University’s College of Business.

Norlarco advertised the executive position both locally and nationally. Olienyk said that finding someone already established in the Northern Colorado community was not a big concern. What was of concern, according to Olienyk, was that the board find someone with very strong leadership skills and creative, visionary thinking.

“Bob brought all of those things for us,” he said, and he would know. Olienyk has been on the board since 1988 and has seen five presidents hold the position.

Olienyk feels that with the intensifying competition in the financial services industry, it is important that Norlarco stay ahead of the curve. In the next few weeks, Hamer and the board will begin to hammer out the business plan for next year and the vision for the long term.

“When you’re there for three to four weeks, you find out how little you actually know,” Hamer said.

New ideas

But he already has some ideas. Hamer said he would like to decrease the credit union’s residential construction program, which includes a lot of out-of-state work, in order to focus more resources locally. The switch will likely give up some income, but Hamer feels that the increased local focus is a good payoff.

“We need a new strategy plan here for the long term,” Hamer said.

Hamer will work with the board in the coming months to develop a business plan for the coming year. Although he’s only been on the job for two months, Hamer already sees expansion as a short-term priority.

Within the next 12 months, he predicts the credit union will add a branch in Greeley and possibly expand its Windsor branch. The expansions would be in line with Norlarco’s October 2005 acquisition of the K.C.D. Credit Union, which served employees of Kodak.

Hamer also thinks that the credit union will likely expand its charter to include all of Weld County, rather than just parts of it.

“We’ll probably put more effort into the retail side of our business,” he said.

In all, the most important aspect for Norlarco is continued service to its members, according to Hamer.

“Every decision is based on what’s best for the members,” he said.

It’s this aspect of Norlarco specifically and the credit union industry in general that keeps Hamer enthusiastic about the job.