Credit Check

A few Achieva Credit Union board members cornered new CEO Gary Regoli in late 2008.

Fresh off an intense strategy meeting on how to slow the proliferation of loan delinquencies, the board worried Regoli might make his stint a short one. After all, Regoli had only replaced longtime Achieva CEO Wendell Brooks a few months earlier. One board member pointedly asked Regoli if he regretted leaving Wichita, Kan., where he ran another credit union for nearly a decade.

Regoli, though, stuck it out with Clearwater-based Achieva, which is closing in on $1 billion in assets and is one of the 15 largest credit unions in Florida. Says Regoli: “This credit union has a lot of untapped potential.”