When Tragedy Leads to Fortitude

How Mike L’Ecuyer’s compassionate leadership led his credit union to bigger and better things

BY LIISA RAJALA

DISRUPTIONS ARE LEARNING EXPERIENCES that set the groundwork for foresight, as Michael L’Ecuyer, former president and CEO of Bellwether Community Credit Union, and his team found in his 20-plus-year tenure there.

The early 2000s were a time of great challenges and change for the credit union.

L’Ecuyer had 20 years of commercial banking experience, but just three years at the credit union when Dick Mahoney, president of what was then known as Telephone Credit Union of NH, announced in August 2001 he would be retiring after leading the company for a quarter century.

Before the volunteer board had a chance to set succession plans in motion, the next month Mahoney was involved in a serious car accident on Route 101 in Bedford. Sadly, he passed away two weeks later.

“We certainly were shocked. The shock doesn’t wear away for a while. We, as an organization, were in mourning for quite a long time,” L’Ecuyer reflects.

A team approach and embracing adaptability helped Bellwether achieve success in the face of uncertainty.

CHANGING TIMES

The timing of Mahoney’s death was especially raw. “The country was in turmoil. 9/11 took place four days after his car accident, so a lot of telephone employees, executives, my vice chair, were called to Ground Zero to do work for Verizon there,” says L’Ecuyer.

In happier times, a 25-minute walk around the building was a casual way to check in with the small group of 30 employees and assess the credit union’s performance.

“Walking around after Dick passed away, it was a very different conversation. It was more talking about how people felt and what was going on. It was a way to bond,” says L’Ecuyer. “We all had something in common. We all missed the guy we respected, but we knew he would want us to move on, to take care of the members’ business – we rallied around that.”

Sitting at the far left of the table in a brown suit is Dick Mahoney, former president of Telephone Credit Union of NH, at a board meeting 40 years ago. Mahoney headed the credit union for 25 years and was its first employee. (Courtesy photo)

That was also the year Telephone Credit Union of NH received approval to widen membership to anyone living or working in New Hampshire, outside of telephone employees and their families, providing the opportunity to expand at a time when the telephone industry was shrinking.

Mahoney, L’Ecuyer and the rest of the team had been working on how they would reshape the business plan with the good graces of a close-knit group of telephone employees.

“I had done commercial banking for 20 years, so I was quite comfortable with what was going to happen – where our challenges would be and where our opportunities would be.”

As the credit union navigated an expanded charter, it became clear they were late to the game, recalls L’Ecuyer.

Bank of America, TD Bank and Citizens were then and remain the giants of New Hampshire banking, taking three-fourths of the share of the market, while community banks and credit unions share the other quarter of banking deposits statewide. Within that grouping, St. Mary’s Bank and Service Credit Union already had longstanding history and market share among the state’s credit unions.

In such a tight marketplace, “we had to figure out how to differentiate ourselves,” says L’Ecuyer. “We evolved over time to make sure we were different.”

The original plan was to compete on price and product value. With one branch in Manchester, and by exploring online banking early on, Bellwether had fewer costs than many competitors.

Mike L’Ecuyer, then president and CEO of Bellwether Credit Union, accepts the honor of Citizen of the Year from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce at its annual dinner in 2019. (Photo by Kendal J. Bush)

“We were great. We could do loans online,” said L’Ecuyer. “But we had a hard time growing the deposit base – people were a little more reluctant then to deposit.”

So in 2004 and 2006, the credit union merged with Greater Nashua Federal Credit Union and Compass Credit Union, expanding from one location to three.

“We acquired their balance sheets and their member base,” said L’Ecuyer. “We built a new location in Nashua and a new branch in Bedford, so our model went from one branch to ‘Can we keep limited branches and keep our costs down to compete on price?’”

With the expansion and a 2005 name change to Bellwether Community Credit Union, the member base has grown by 25,000, to 35,000 members today, and the number of employees has more than tripled.

EVOLVING CULTURE

Bellwether’s ability to adapt and pivot coincided with an internal cultural change taking place.

One of L’Ecuyer’s lasting marks on the organization was encouraging employee involvement in the community and showing the board the importance of relationship-building.

A mentor from his commercial banking career taught him, “You give back to the community you work in.” “I believed it, I embraced it,” he says.

A Massachusetts native, L’Ecuyer familiarized himself with the New Hampshire community by getting involved with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Palace Theatre, serving as chair of the board of both organizations. (In 2019, he was named Citizen of the Year by the chamber.)

The company formally adopted a policy to allocate eight hours of time to volunteer at a nonprofit of the employee’s choice.

It was not mandatory, but L’Ecuyer found it was a boost to employee morale, and provided opportunities for teamwork outside of the office.

Serving on organizational boards opened up a variety of topics, personalities and backgrounds that one might not otherwise find within their own circle.

And those experiences spurred a more inclusive management process at Bellwether.

Consider that L’Ecuyer’s predecessor was the first paid employee in 1965 at a volunteer-formed credit union that started in 1921. It was an era for a top-down management style.

Mahoney would chat with L’Ecuyer and others about the opportunities and challenges of the day, but for the longest time it was Mahoney making all of the decisions by himself, says L’Ecuyer.

At some point, he instructed L’Ecuyer to make some hires, helping him create a position that led to the hire of an employee who eventually graduated to the role of chief operating officer for 12 years.

“In his own way, he was helping me build a team,” he says. “We had the right group of people to deal with this huge catastrophic event, and we were successful with it. I think we came out of it stronger and the culture of the company solidified.”

After Mahoney passed away, Bellwether, which was too small to have a distant upper management team, engaged its employees to communicate their ideas.

“We found ourselves being inclusive in the management process and in the executing process,” said L’Ecuyer. “I would say, ‘How would you like to do it? What’s your thought process? Who else would be involved?’ And everybody, over time, had to do a project with somebody, and we all had ownership.”

Transparency was stressed to employees, members and the board when it came to good or bad news, but not a lot of conversation about right or wrong decisions.

“Everyone knows what’s wrong, but how do you get it to right? There are different levels of corrections. There are different ways and tradeoffs. The conversations you have is what’s the best way for us to move forward,” he says. “You can engage people and have disagreements without being disagreeable with each other, and challenge each other professionally and grow from mistakes and, over time, become better without necessarily having a blueprint plan on an evolving culture.”

When L’Ecuyer’s retirement date – set well in advance – was announced, he asked Bellwether’s employees who would be interested in being groomed as a potential candidate for the executive position.

Mike L’Ecuyer at a March of Dimes event. One of L’Ecuyer’s lasting marks on Bellwether Credit Union was encouraging employee involvement in the community and showing the board the importance of relationship-building. (Courtesy photo)

Nathan Saller, who had experience as director of marketing and chief operating officer, expressed interest and L’Ecuyer guided him through different elements of the industry, how the credit union was run and its value proposition. In early 2019, the board of directors approved Saller to succeed L’Ecuyer later that year.

“He’s a hard-working guy, but what struck me were how happy his co-workers were. His peers who had known him, for years, were thrilledhe was the person given the opportunity to do it,” says L’Ecuyer, adding that “looking back through my tenure,” he thinks his predecessor Dick Mahoney “would have been proud of what we did.” ¥

Nathan Saller succeeded L’Ecuyer as Bellwether’s president and CEO in 2019. By planning far in advance, Bellwether ensured Saller experienced a smoother transition into the role. (Courtesy photo)