CUSO Magazine: Thank you for joining us, Randy. Before we get to NACUSO, everybody has their credit union story. We wanted to know how you got involved in the industry and what brought you to being interested in working with NACUSO.

Randy Salser: 25-30 years ago, after grad school, I was in Sarasota, where I met Dan Berger in the insurance industry, and we became friends. Fast forward to 2013, he called me and said, “Hey, I have an opportunity for you.” At this point in his career, Dan was the CEO of NAFCU. He told me to consider running the for-profit subsidiary of NAFCU. I told him, “I don’t know anything about credit unions, and I don’t know anything about nonprofits.” But he insisted.

NACUSO CEO Randy Salser

And so, I did, and pretty quickly fell in love with credit unions very early on. I loved how they shared ideas, they shared resources. They had no problem talking to each other and strategizing. And that was the opposite of how we communicated with each other in the insurance world. We certainly didn’t share information and ideas if they worked!

When the NACUSO position opened up, I actually called a friend of mine and said, “Hey, you should do this, this is a really cool organization, and it’s certainly something that’s worthy, and a great opportunity.” And he just kind of laughed and said, “Dude, you should do this.” I stopped for a second and realized it wasn’t something I had considered for myself, but why not? So I reached out to Jill [Nowacki] at Humanidei and here we are.

I love the collaborative nature of credit unions, and CUSOs are a perfect example of that. It’s the living, breathing form of that ecosystem of people sharing ideas, whether it’s for risk mitigation, sharing capital, capital ideas, or sharing intellectual capital. That’s what’s so exciting, and I’m grateful and excited to be leading this organization during this time.

We had the opportunity to interview NACUSO Board Chair Bill Beardsley recently, and he spoke very highly of you. What are you most excited for as you launch your tenure as the newest CEO of NACUSO?

So far, I have been most excited about the response of our members. Some good, some bad, but they are all very interested in working together and getting this organization back to the center of the ecosystem as it relates to CUSOs. I’m lucky enough to have great relationships with the folks at America’s Credit Unions, with the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC), with the Leagues, and they all do great work as it relates to the tax exemption fight, the NDAA, TCPA, a lot of the stuff that’s happening on Capitol Hill.

But that’s not what our dues dollars go towards. Our dues dollars will be specific and even surgical on the advocacy side as it relates to issues affecting CUSOs and credit unions, and we can do that together. It’s been really good to be able to reach out and have these open lines of communication and dialogue with a lot of the industry partners. Most of them reached out before I even started and said, “Anything you need or we can help and collaborate on, we’re willing.” And that was just even more eye-opening, and I’ve been in this space a long time!

Has the current political environment affected that advocacy work? 

During our Hill Hike, we met with both sides of the House, both sides of the Senate, members of the Senate Banking Committee, and they’re working. Is it tough? Yes. Are they strapped? Maybe. But they’re definitely working and willing. And they love credit unions! This is a bipartisan issue, helping credit unions serve Main Street.

[NCUA] Chairman Hauptman is also very active. He cares about credit unions. His team cares about credit unions. Is it a little tougher for them? Probably, I can’t speak to that as much, but they’re certainly willing and open to have meetings and dialogue. That’s what we want to do—make sure that the CUSO network and framework are front and center, so that when it’s mentioned, when it’s talked about, when there are ideas, we’re not having to reeducate across that system every time. So it is tough and charged for sure in DC, but it’s also open for business there, and we had plenty of meetings. I was tired by the end of the day, to tell you the truth!

Bill also applauded NACUSO Board Member Miriam Ackerman’s job as interim CEO. Has she imparted any wisdom to you as you’ve taken over the role full-time?

Oh, for sure. I’ll tell people, “Thank God for Miriam.” She just grasped everything, and while the interim CEO did a lot of clean-up, getting stuff back into a CRM system, doing some of the data maintenance, and cleaning up some of our member information. Important work that has set the stage for the future. So she’s been a great resource for NACUSO and for me, and continues to be as one of my bosses on the board. I couldn’t be happier to have Miriam as a supporter and a friend.

What are some of the key initiatives for NACUSO in the coming year, and where will the organization be placing its focus?

The advocacy work on Capitol Hill will be one of the main focuses as I mentioned. We’ll lean into the stuff that’s specific to CUSOs and credit unions.

The second piece will be building out an education platform via our website that focuses on telling the stories of our CUSO partners. Webinars, webcasts, podcasts, white papers, case studies—a place where people can go to learn about the value of CUSOs and some of the resources that they can provide. And then even some of the general guides like why to start a CUSO. How you would start a CUSO. Building out that information on our website will be important.

Then we have our Reimagine Conference in 2026, which is a huge opportunity for collaboration between CUSOs and credit unions. We are working hard to get more credit unions to come and learn about this environment and this community.

We are also going to do three roundtables next year to have more of a consistent feel throughout the year. These will be smaller, allowing for a little more innovation. The conference is incredibly valuable, and these roundtables allow for further granular dialogue after the conference. These will also provide a great opportunity for Advocacy updates for the group.

I participated in a roundtable right when I started in October, led by [MBFS CEO] Mark Ritter, [NACUSO Board Chair and Michigan Business Connection President] Bill Beardsley, and [Tru Treasury CEO] John Ballantyne. It was 35 people in a room, sharing experiences, sharing ideas, sharing ways to be better for this industry. And I just absorbed it thinking, “Geez, I picked the right place.” So that’s what I’m really focused on right now.

Speaking of the Reimagine Conference—hosted April 27-30 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida—for those readers who might not be aware, who are you encouraging to attend?

I would encourage C-suite credit union folks to come, CUSOs obviously, a lot of our lead partners will be there, but also FinTech system partners as well. There seems to be tension between FinTechs and CUSOs and for me, any organization that’s interested in helping a credit union, I’m for it. So I want to give a platform to them to talk about these things. And FinTechs can be a CUSO. CUSOs can be a FinTech. There shouldn’t be that tension there. There should be collaboration. That’s in our DNA.

We will have opportunities for individuals from these different types of organizations to meet, network, and establish relationships where they can share ideas and resources. It’s a place where everybody can come and really collaborate with each other as part of that greater credit union community.

Anything else you want to share with our readers? 

To our members: thank you! If you’re not a member, we’d love to have you. We need scale. We need the ability to work on Capitol Hill and provide these educational resources. So I welcome any new member, and thank you to all of our current members.