Visions FCU CEO inducted into Hall of Fame

Late last month, Visions Federal Credit Union announced that Tyrone Muse, its president and CEO, had been chosen as a 2021 Hall of Fame inductee by the Credit Union Executives Society (CUES), a leading talent development solutions provider for credit unions across North America. Winners were announced on Oct. 21 of last year at the CUES Member Appreciation & Awards Event.

According to a recent press release, the CUES Hall of Fame honors credit unions and individuals nationwide for accomplishments such as “exemplary leadership, innovation, or advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace” and involvement in community service and education, as well as a history of self-improvement and contributions to CUES.

“This Hall of Fame recognition is well deserved,” said Alan Hertel, president of Visions’ Board of Directors, in the release. “It didn’t take long to realize we ‘hit a home run’ when we hired Ty some eight years ago. He’s very active in the credit union movement, and I know he’s viewed by the industry as a true leader and valuable contributor. I know I speak for the entire Board when I say, ‘Congratulations, Ty’ — we are all proud of you!”

For Muse, the accomplishment is a big one, having been a fan of CUES for a long time.

“They’re focused on leadership and education, and they’re really an important part of our credit union industry of developing talent and developing the staff we have,” Muse said. “And their CEO, John Pembroke, is someone I really admire. He’s a friend, and he gave me a call saying that, ‘hey, I want to let you know that we’d like to put you in this hall of fame.’”

With Muse being only 51 years old and having only been in the credit industry for 15 years, the award was quite the surprise, but Muse said, “It was a love letter to tell me that they like what I’m doing, they like what I’m doing in this industry, that I’m on the right path and keep it up.”

“Over the last few years, five years or so, I’ve been really trying to dedicate more and more of my time to the industry as a whole, not just my own credit union,” he said. “So, I was very appreciative when I kind of wrapped my head around what they were saying that it’s really giving a giving me my flowers now, versus making wait for it. But I was very appreciative because this particular group, it does mean a lot coming from them.”

Muse said the induction is also a reward for the community-based efforts he and other Visions staff have done for the communities Visions is a part of.

“I pretended to be a grocery bagger, an ‘Undercover Boss’ type of thing where I was bagging groceries and then surprising [customers] by paying them for their groceries,” he said. “You literally can change someone’s life or day just by an act of kindness. And that’s what it’s all about. … We’re in the banking industry, and people may think of that as a cold word. But I do think the fact that we’re not-for-profit makes it a warm way that we do it. So, I feel pretty good about that.”

Not only is the induction a great personal accomplishment, but Muse said it also is a big endorsement of Visions’ work overall.

“I think it reaffirms that we’re going in the right path, that we’re being innovative, that we’re pushing the industry to do more for our members, and doing pushing ourselves to do more for the industry and our staff and educating,” Muse said. “Hopefully, we’re making a difference. Our goal here is to make Visions matter. That’s our mantra. And I think this is a more of an award for my team versus myself, that, collectively, we’re making Visions better. And that’s what we’re kind of getting the award for.”

Muse sees Visions’ inclusion in the CUES Hall of Fame as a great catalyst to help progress credit unions as a whole forward, especially considering CUES is 34,000 members strong and growing.

“I’m definitely trying to push the industry to be embracing more of the technology, working with [financial technologies], partnering with them to get out there and understand cryptocurrency and blockchain and other digital assets,” Muse said. “And I think that that sends a message that it’s OK to talk about those topics and push those topics.”

So far, the reaction to Muse’s induction has been nothing but positive, he said.

“It’s been a lot of … friends in the industry reaching out, teasing me that I’m older than they realized,” he said. “But a lot of people were proud who’ve helped me become who I am, including the first group of the first credit union I joined, many of the CEOs. And I’m fortunate that I could say a large number of the CEOs in the industry are friends of mine, and even in the banking world.”

Even though he’s been in the industry for less than two decades, Muse has made plenty of progress in that short period. Muse grew up in New Paltz, New York, and joined Visions as CEO about nine years ago after working for another credit union downstate.

“The opportunity was to come to the birthplace of the credit union for IBM, and that was really interesting and intriguing to me,” Muse said. “A lot of things that they were going through were things I had just gone through with my other credit union. So, I thought all the things I learned there, I could bring here as a CEO and hopefully do them better this time. And so far, so good. Things are doing really, really well for us.”

Muse described his approach to the CEO role as “people first.”

“I start with the consumer or the customer, or in this case, our members, like what can we do to make … a difference in their lives,” he said. “And then, I do that through people as well through my employees and try to make sure that they have the best experience, help them reach the best version of themselves. And then, if I do that successfully, it then allows me to take care of the people in my community, which then makes a better home for all this and we all can do better.”

Muse has seen Visions through significant progress, including growing its employees from about 350 when he started to about 750 now and from 120,000 members to approaching 240,000 now. And Visions also has two new branches to celebrate — Visions’ Ithaca location opened last summer (see t.ly/U4n2) after several months’ worth of planning (see t.ly/d0DE), and the credit union is expecting to open another location in Cortland before the year is up.

Visions’ Ithaca location has been acclimating well to the community, Muse said, and he’s looking forward to what’s next for him and the credit union.

“It’s going really well, especially concerning the pandemic,” he said. “We can’t even use our super power that’s being around people and meeting people and getting in the branch. But we have the right leadership. I’m really excited about the branch manager out there and the team that is out there. And I think they’re a really good representation of who we are in the community. We’ve already made great inroads between working with the right publications, … working with the [Tompkins County] Chamber, and the growth is right on path. We can definitely tell it’s going to be one of those quickly successful branches. So, I’m really happy to see that.”

For more information, visit visionsfcu.org.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@vizellamedia.com.