Q&A: Award Winning CEO Preaches Keeping it Local

Patch recently sat down with Mary Matheson, president and CEO of Wakota Federal Credit Union, the 2012 Small Business of the Year.

Matheson discussed business strategy, the importance of giving back to the community and how it felt to win the chamber’s annual small business award.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Mary, if I can just have you start out by telling me a little bit about how your business serves to benefit the Inver Grove Heights and South Saint Paul communities.

Mary Matheson: We are local and most of the residents and people who work within Inver Grove Heights and South Saint Paul like to keep everything local … It’s that small town credit union, everybody knows your name.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Right.

Matheson: That’s what differentiates us. Just knowing and caring a little bit more about the consumer, the person.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Absolutely. Ok, great. Tell me, as the CEO and president of this organization, what business methods and strategies do you use to ensure that Wakota remains a financially healthy and successful business?

Matheson: The recession proved how we did that. We weathered through that storm by not making risky investments, by making sure that our members' funds were always insured … While we have had a few losses in our loans, which I think everybody has, they’ve been minimal. We’ve had enough capital to sustain the rough times. We work that way. We don’t like to put out anything that’s going to be real risky for our members or the consumers.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: How do the financial benefits of your business methods trickle down to benefit your customers? Is there a trickle down effect?

Matheson: Overall, as a credit union, in general there is. Basically, we tout the credit union difference. I’m not going to say that my credit union is any better than any other credit union, but I will say it’s better than any bank. And that’s the difference.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Tell me a little bit about what sets you apart from other area credit unions and makes your business unique.

Matheson: We are the one location … It’s exactly what the people in the River Heights area want. They don’t want to venture out. They don’t want others to venture in. And that makes us unique, because we are the River Heights credit union.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Tell me a little bit more about what your business does for the community outside of your work with credit and loans. I understand that you guys are involved in several different charitable organizations in town. Could you tell me a little about that?

Matheson: We partner with different things each year. We always do something for Neighbors every year, depending on what their needs are … The other thing that we partnered with in 2009 was Minnesota Valley Humane Society. That was right in the heart of the recession and there was all these organizations for people, but we realized that there was a strong need for animals … We did a couple of drives for them and it went over really well. So we decided to partner with them … And we were doing that, but unfortunately there were some other issues and they ended up closing the end of 2010.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: That’s so sad.

Matheson: What we chose to do was to continue that tradition of soliciting for the animals in the shelters of Dakota County.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: For the Humane Society?

Matheson: For the Humane Societies of Dakota County.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Great.

Matheson: Then the other thing we do is we periodically do fundraisers for the Children’s Miracle Network, which is Gillette Children’s Hospital.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: So, lots of great, local charities.

Matheson: We try to keep it local.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: Anything else you think we need to touch on?

Matheson: We are open to everybody in Dakota County, even though we’re only in South St. Paul. Anybody in Dakota County can become a member here or open an account.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: You guys are kind of an institution, right? This credit union has been here for almost 90 years.

Matheson: 81 years.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: One last question. How does it feel to win small business of the year?

Matheson: It’s super exciting … We’re hoping that it helps us grow and build awareness to us, as well as us helping the chamber build awareness, because they need to grow as well.