In Episode 8 of CU Next, host Joe Thomas sits down with Jeffrey Staw, Chief Information & Innovation Officer at Firefighters First Credit Union. Jeffrey shares his unique dual perspective-moving from building abstracted, multi-tenant solutions at Open Technology Solutions (OTS) to managing front-line member delivery and a deep portfolio of fintech vendors.Together, they break down the economics of digital banking, the hard truths behind the buy vs. build dilemma, how to turn adversarial vendor dynamics into collaborative "win-win-win" relationships, and why the future of AI in community financial institutions hinges on human-tech orchestration rather than just adding another channel.In This Episode, We Discuss:The operational friction between multi-tenant CUSO scale and credit union field-of-membership focusMoving beyond the "grocery store" mindset: Why contract fees are only table stakes in vendor partnershipsThe rise of platform thinking: How mid-size institutions achieve agility through extensible architectureThe real reasons modern digital banking stacks remain costly, slow to iterate, and heavily commoditizedWhy agentic AI must be orchestrated with human advisors, not simply bolted on as another communication siloEpisode Timestamps:00:00 – Introductions & Jeffrey Staw’s journey into the credit union movement01:25 – Firefighters First Credit Union: Mission, asset size, and serving career firefighters03:11 – From CUSO leader to Credit Union CIO: Perspectives from both sides of the table05:13 – The abstraction challenge: Building common solutions vs. meeting individual CU needs07:21 – Stepping into the operator seat: Managing internal expectations and vendor timelines09:36 – Transforming vendor dynamics: Moving from transactional buyers to strategic partners12:18 – The "Win-Win-Win": Why your credit union needs its technology providers to succeed15:17 – Buy vs. Build: Moving away from proprietary code toward platform thinking18:28 – The citizen developer debate: CIO vs. COO perspectives20:48 – Inside the digital banking bottleneck: Tech debt, refactoring cycles, and third-party plugins24:52 – Beyond "Channel Bloat": The true role of AI and agentic tech in credit unions26:35 – Human + Machine Orchestration: Finding the true competitive edge for community banking27:45 – Closing thoughts & wrap-up🔗 Subscribe to CU Next for weekly conversations with the executive and technology leaders modernizing the credit union movement.#CUNext #CreditUnions #Fintech #DigitalBanking #PlatformThinking #BankingTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence #CreditUnionLeadership

"I spent several decades perfecting my craft as a computer programmer. Guess what? Nobody is writing code anymore. At least they shouldn't be."Joe sits down with Phillip Merrick — the founder who took webMethods public at the height of the dot-com boom, co-founded EnterpriseDB to bring Postgres into the enterprise, and now leads pgEdge — for a conversation about what today's AI moment looks like to someone who lived through the last one.Phillip walks through the parallels he sees with the dot-com bubble (revenue round-tripping, the joint ventures, the concentration of capital) and where this time genuinely differs. He shares what happened inside pgEdge when agentic engineering took hold: engineers doubling, trebling and quadrupling their productivity, three new products shipped in nine months — and then the rest of the company struggling to keep up. He calls it a technology digestion problem, and it's the most useful warning in the episode for anyone about to turn this on.The conversation closes on build vs. buy, and Phillip's advice for credit unions is direct: if you haven't historically been an organization that builds software and runs it, maintains it and secures it, don't assume a coding agent changes that.⏱ CHAPTERS00:00 — Introducing Phillip Merrick03:37 — The webMethods IPO04:31 — Three citizenships, every dialect of English05:07 — Dot-com bubble vs. AI: the parallels07:42 — "Nobody is writing code anymore"08:31 — History rhymes: round-tripping and over-provisioning09:16 — Are we over-provisioning compute this time?11:15 — Agentic engineering at pgEdge: the productivity jump12:21 — Three products in nine months13:14 — The technology digestion problem14:30 — When speed moves risk onto the critical path15:36 — Don't build one monolithic agent16:28 — The error-rate math on chained agents18:08 — Toward a composable agentic reference architecture19:12 — Build vs. buy for credit unions20:12 — "Don't kid yourself"21:35 — Prototyping with Lovable and Replit22:37 — Why credit unions should own agentic banking24:24 — Closing thoughtsKEY TAKEAWAYSThe capital going into AI is several orders of magnitude beyond the dot-com boom — but unlike then, there's real revenue behind itAgentic coding tools crossed a threshold in 2025: the output still needs review, but it no longer needs reworkWhen engineering output goes up and to the right, operations, enablement and risk have to move with itMonolithic agents create attack surface, are terribly hard to debug, and degrade as you ask more of themChain enough 97%-accurate agents and the multiplication catches up with you — decompose into specialistsPrototyping platforms can close the old gap between what business users want and what IT buildsCredit unions know banking and member service — that's the ground to win agentic banking onABOUT THE GUESTPhillip Merrick co-founded webMethods, where he pioneered web services and web APIs and led the company through one of the most successful software IPOs of its era. He went on to co-found EnterpriseDB, one of the first companies to make Postgres viable as a fully open-source enterprise database, and later led turnarounds at SparkPost and Fugue. He co-founded pgEdge in 2022, now serving major U.S. government agencies, the German healthcare system, Thales and a major Western European payment system.

Welcome to the CU Next Podcast — conversations with the people shaping technology and strategy across the credit union movement.Bill Hills spent a decade as Executive Director and CIO of Navy Federal Credit Union — the largest credit union in the world — before retiring in 2019. Today he sits on the board of Lafayette Federal Credit Union and on the board of Constant AI, a fintech building agentic AI for credit union lending.That gives him a rare three-way view: the operator who had to scale technology under double-digit growth, the board member who has to stay out of management's lane, and the fintech insider who sees how vendors approach credit unions — and how often they get it wrong.In this episode, host Joe sits down with Bill to talk about the constant tension between internal efficiency and member experience, why "every conversation is a negotiation" is the most important thing a CIO can learn, why credit unions don't have the same freedom to fail that banks do, and why — despite all the noise — he doesn't think AI is as unprecedented as everyone says.Oh, and he's been flying gliders for 45 years, which started because a sailplane landed in a field next to Route 1 and his car followed it.CHAPTERS00:00 — Welcome to CU Next: introducing Bill Hills02:54 — Freedom's Wings: teaching people with disabilities to fly04:12 — The glider that landed on Route 105:46 — Flying low and slow as a sanity check06:41 — Two credit unions, two completely different problems08:56 — Member expectations you don't get to set09:51 — "We're focused on the member" — are you really?10:45 — The efficiency trap and its downstream cost12:30 — The CIO as arbitrator12:42 — Competing against budgets you'll never match13:13 — Why credit unions can't afford to fail like banks can14:06 — A word on the upcoming Jim Phillips episode14:18 — Service first, and growth follows15:34 — "Learn how to lose on your terms"16:31 — Every conversation is a negotiation17:56 — including the ones with your children18:25 — What surprised him about sitting on a board19:45 — Being a resource when asked20:32 — What fintechs get wrong about credit unions21:18 — Membership versus customers22:38 — Skip-a-pay: what a good agentic AI use case looks like23:23 — When monetization clouds a startup's judgment24:23 — Seventy-two years of computing history25:05 — "Why is this so different? It isn't."25:23 — What is different is the speed26:16 — This is now a game of partnerships28:09 — AI won't fix a foundation you never built28:39 — Closing thoughts

As CIO of SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union — one of the largest federally chartered credit unions in the country at nearly $37 billion — Jim has spent his career on both sides of financial services: big national banks, Big Six consulting, and now more than a decade in the credit union movement.In this conversation with host Joe, he talks about why SchoolsFirst has no growth targets, how they grew deposits without chasing CD rates, what happened when they audited every AI tool in the building (there were about 120), and the question keeping a lot of credit union leaders up at night: what does "people helping people" mean when members start sending their AI agents to talk to yours?Also covered: hiring outside bank talent without losing the mission, why an automation that works fine at small scale can fall over at two million members, and how to talk to your team honestly about roles that are going to change.WHAT'S IN THIS EPISODEWhy SchoolsFirst has no growth goals and no merger goals. The credit union is laser focused on serving the educational community and their families, and growth and financial performance are treated as outcomes of that focus rather than targets to chase. When deposits got tight across the industry, SchoolsFirst didn't chase CD rates — Jim describes that money as transient, gone the moment a better rate opens across the street. Instead they doubled down on school district relationships and organic membership growth, capturing direct deposits from school employees. The result: a return to pre-pandemic growth rates across all markets, driven by word of mouth and reputation rather than mass marketing or TV advertising.The AI inventory that surprised everyone. SchoolsFirst brought in an outside firm to assess every AI tool running in production or under evaluation anywhere in the credit union. The count came back at roughly 120. Jim walks through what came next: grouping tools into buckets by use case, rationalizing heavy duplication across platform vendors now shipping embedded AI, and standing up a formal intake and governance process reviewed by architecture, security, and strategy — specifically to keep rogue agents out of production.What "people helping people" means when agents talk to agents. If a member sends their AI agent to talk to the credit union's AI agent, what part of that is personal? SchoolsFirst is deploying AI internally — helping underwriting approve more loans to more members, running bots that improve answer consistency across channels — but has deliberately held back on member-facing bots that could dead-end a member with no one there to help.Why credit unions can't afford to be wrong. Jim's line is blunt: a big bank can spend $50 million on a project that goes sideways, call it lessons learned, and move on. Not-for-profit financial cooperatives are spending members' money, and that changes the math on every technology decision.CHAPTERS00:00 Meet Jim Phillips, CIO of SchoolsFirst FCU01:36 Meet Jim Phillips, CIO of SchoolsFirst FCU03:03 From national banks and consulting to credit unions05:19 Why member-owned changes the whole conversation05:49 Twenty moves and the "credit union flipper" mindset07:33 Why he stopped chasing the spotlight10:02 No growth goals — growth as a byproduct11:33 Growing deposits without chasing CD rates11:48 Mergers, scale, and a consolidating industry13:47 Big banks can be wrong. Credit unions can't.14:01 Bringing in outsiders without losing the mission17:30 Culture fit versus the resume18:54 Understanding the past before you innovate20:57 Agentic AI: when agents talk to agents22:11 Where SchoolsFirst uses AI today23:07 Why member-facing bots aren't live yet24:20 The AI inventory: 120 tools discovered25:06 Building an AI governance framework27:25 Vendor hype, board pressure, citizen developers30:36 Upskilling teams as roles change

How do you achieve true business agility without getting trapped in the rigid bureaucracy of Agile methodologies?In this episode of the CU Next Podcast, host Joe Thomas sits down with Michael Levine, retired SVP of Consumer Technology at US Bank and author of the People Over Process trilogy. Drawing from decades of experience managing billion-dollar technology projects, Michael shares why major technological transformations often fail and how to pivot your strategy to prioritize the human element over rigid processes.Whether you are navigating complex legacy systems like Hogan or restructuring your IT departments to better serve your members, this conversation is packed with C-suite insights on structuring teams, reducing cognitive load, and fostering alignment between business and technology.Episode HighlightsThe Agile Illusion: Why adopting Agile frameworks doesn't automatically guarantee business agility.Mastering Team Topologies: How to structure Stream-Aligned Teams, Platform Teams, and Complicated Subsystems to eliminate friction and enhance delivery flow.The Power of Conway’s Law: Aligning your organization’s communication structure with your desired technological architecture.The Missing Link in the Agile Manifesto: Defining the crucial role of management and leadership through Rigor, Efficiency, and Alignment.Embracing Constraints: Why avoiding constraints leads to failure, and how to harness them to spark true innovation for your credit union.Chapter Timestamps00:00 – Introduction & Michael Levine’s Journey in Tech Leadership06:09 – The Evolution of IT Methodologies & The Trap of "Process Over People"08:02 – Rethinking Organizational Silos & Team Topologies12:48 – Building Stream-Aligned Teams for Independent Delivery15:26 – The Crucial Role of Platform Teams and APIs19:14 – Managing Complicated Subsystems (The "Hogan" Constraint)22:02 – The 3 Pillars of Tech Leadership: Rigor, Efficiency, and Alignment24:08 – Leaving Egos at the Door: Focusing on the Credit Union Member28:31 – Why Tech Success is 2/3 People and 1/3 Process & TechnologyAbout the GuestMichael Levine is a retired Senior Vice President of Consumer Technology at US Bank and a seasoned veteran in banking and mortgage technology. He is the author of three books, culminating in People Over Process, which explores the critical intersection of human leadership, team dynamics, and technological execution.Connect & SubscribeEnjoyed the insights? Make sure to hit the Like button, Subscribe to the channel for more interviews with fintech and credit union leaders, and share your thoughts in the comments below!Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.#CUNextPodcast #CreditUnions #Fintech #TeamTopologies #AgileLeadership #DigitalTransformation #PeopleOverProcess #BankingTechnology

Here's a description tailored for Apple Podcasts (more narrative and editorial in tone, no hashtags or heavy SEO-stuffing, since Apple's algorithm favors natural, well-written copy over keyword density):

From Underwater Welder to Fintech Pioneer: Rickey Burks on the Invention of Mobile Deposit

What does it take to build an innovation that changes an entire industry? In this episode, Joe talks with Rickey Burks, former Chief Technology Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at USAA, about the true story behind mobile check deposit — a technology now used by nearly every bank in America, which USAA brought to market roughly a year ahead of JPMorgan Chase.

Rickey traces his unlikely path from underwater welding to a 40-plus year technology career, and shares how a change in banking regulation (Check 21), a deep focus on member needs, and a willingness to take calculated risk led his team to invent Deposit@Home and, eventually, mobile deposit.

The conversation goes well beyond the origin story. Rickey and Joe dig into why enterprise architecture should be treated as business strategy — not an IT afterthought — drawing on research from MIT's Jeanne Ross. They discuss how USAA built an internal innovation engine modeled on venture capital firms, why chasing "platform purity" can quietly kill good ideas, and how leaders should be thinking about agentic AI today — particularly its potential to transform compliance, audit, and risk functions inside financial institutions.

Whether you work in banking, technology leadership, or enterprise strategy, this episode offers a candid, experience-driven look at how real innovation gets built — and sustained — inside a large organization.

In this episode:

• The regulatory shift (Check 21) that made mobile deposit possible
• How USAA's leadership culture enabled a risky, category-defining bet
• Enterprise architecture as business strategy, not a technology function
• Building an internal innovation model inspired by venture capital
• Avoiding "technology purism" when adopting new platforms
• Where agentic AI fits into banking compliance and risk management
• Why annual strategic planning may no longer be fast enough

Guest: Rickey Burks, former CTO & Chief Innovation Officer, USAA

In this episode, host Joe Thomas sits down with Ricardo J. Chamorro, EVP of Consumer Banking & Growth at PenFed Credit Union, for a candid conversation about what it really takes to build a winning technology and business strategy in financial services.

Drawing on a remarkable career path — West Point graduate, military intelligence officer, Wall Street M&A, private equity, and now over a decade at PenFed — Ricardo shares hard-won lessons on leadership, execution, and innovation. He and Joe reflect on nearly a decade of working together and the technology foundation they built along the way.

What we cover:

• What "strategic agility" actually means — and why competitors get a vote on whether you win
• Be first, be better, or be gone: figuring out what members really want
• The power of 80/20 thinking ("perfect is the enemy of good")
• Building "fusion cells" to break down silos between legal, compliance, IT, and product
• "In God we trust — all others bring data," and working with the data you actually have
• Pairing business leaders with technical acumen and technologists with business acumen
• How a one-platform strategy lowered run-the-business costs and freed up spend for innovation
• The trust required between business and technology leaders to stay the course
• Where the industry is heading: consolidation, scale, AI, and "cognitive banking" — and how to avoid the "commodity vortex"

A great listen for leaders in banking, fintech, and anyone navigating the intersection of business strategy and technology.

Chapters:00:00 Intro & Ricardo's background01:14 West Point & military service02:44 Defining "strategic agility"04:46 80/20 thinking & execution05:41 Fusion cells: breaking down silos07:23 "All others bring data"07:51 Working with the data you have10:12 APIs & the Consumer Banking Technology Office12:49 Business savvy meets tech savvy13:51 Platform strategy & cost savings15:40 Trust between business & tech leaders15:57 The future of banking: scale, AI & innovation17:38 Closing thoughts

#Banking #Fintech #Leadership #PenFed #StrategicAgility #FinancialServices #DigitalTransformation #CreditUnion

In this inaugural episode of the CU Next Podcast, host Joe Thomas sits down with Mirella Reznic, CEO of Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union, for a candid conversation about leadership, technology strategy, and the future of credit unions in an AI-driven world.📌 What you'll learn in this episodeWhy credit unions must compete with big bank capabilities on a fraction of the budgetHow the 80/20 rule can transform credit union technology strategyWhy "Frankenstein tech stacks" are slowing credit unions down — and how to fix themThe difference between a technology strategy and a business strategy with embedded techHow agentic AI and generative AI can level the playing field between credit unions and big banksWhy scale and growth are no longer optional for credit unions⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Introductions and welcome to CU Next Podcast00:20 — Mirella's background: JP Morgan Chase, American Express, MetLife, and big data AI02:10 — Her lifelong love of classical violin (40+ years of playing)02:54 — Big banks vs. credit unions: pros, cons, and cultural contrasts04:43 — Doing what big banks do, with a fraction of the resources07:42 — The "Frankenstein" tech stack problem in credit unions08:26 — The 80/20 rule: ecosystem thinking vs. point solutions11:08 — Strategy, vision, and why technology must be embedded in business strategy15:10 — The three strategic imperatives at Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union17:21 — Is agentic AI just another channel — or a transformation opportunity?20:09 — Scale, size, and the future of small credit unions21:52 — Closing thoughts and a future violin performance promised👤 About the guestMirella Reznic is CEO of Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union. She spent over 30 years in financial services across JP Morgan Chase (including 12 years in London), American Express, MetLife, and big data AI before joining the credit union movement four years ago. Her academic background is in neurobiology and biochemistry, and she has played classical violin since age three.

👤 About the hostJoe Thomas is the host of CU Next Podcast and a longtime technology leader in financial services, with 15 years at USAA before moving into the credit union industry.