ABCUL’s Young Professionals Network Presents to Global Audience

Thursday 25 January 2024

In an online webinar titled ‘Discussion on Leadership and Young Professionals’, members of ABCUL’s Young Professionals Network, alongside leading voices from the British and North American Credit Union movement spoke to attendees to learn about their journey in the movement.

In a three-part discussion, Chair of the YPN Network, Luke McGilvray opened the webinar to talk about the journey the founding members took to start and grow the network, to where it is today. “The Network was delighted to welcome speakers and attendees from across Britain and North America,” said Luke. “It was an honest and thought-provoking session, which I found beneficial personally as a young professional with ambitions to continue to grow in this movement.”

The second session heard from three credit union sector leaders, CEO of Serve and Protect Credit Union, Paul Norgrove, CEO of Enterprise Credit Union, Karen Bennett and Director of Communications and Digital Marketing of Mitchell Stankovic & Associates, Zach Christensen who discussed the opportunities and challenges facing young professionals and their thoughts on how they can continue to develop and their experiences.

The final part of the webinar focused on leadership. A panel featuring, CEO of ABCUL, Robert Kelly, Business Relationship Manager at Canadian Credit Union Association, Sara Marajah and Senior Program Manager at BECU, Deborah Donnelly discussed their thoughts on leadership, experiences with good and bad leadership and what it takes to become an effective leader.

“I’d like to thank our speakers who gave reassuring and important advice on how to make a profound impact in our day-to-day lives,” Luke added. “We will now continue to make strides exploring different themes focusing on the important issues within the credit union movement, learning from future leaders, interacting with international networks and continuing our mission to provide a robust and dynamic environment for young credit union professionals.”

Looking ahead the YPN will host its annual flagship event at the ABCUL conference this month, Luke is looking forward to welcoming members of the Network following a two-year absence due to the pandemic. Luke said: “We have an exciting agenda planned focusing on the importance of mental health and developing our career plan. A key ambition for the network is to develop its young professionals, professionally but also personally and to provide them with all the necessary tools needed to succeed”.