CBJ's Largest Privately Held Companies 2018
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UICCU<br />
5<br />
JEFF DISTERHOFT<br />
PRESIDENT & CEO<br />
University of Iowa Community Credit Union continued<br />
its climb up the Corridor Business Journal’s <strong>Largest</strong> <strong>Privately</strong><br />
<strong>Held</strong> <strong>Companies</strong> list this year, breaking the top five<br />
and setting a new bar for the state’s banking industry.<br />
The North Liberty-based credit union ranked No. 5<br />
on this year’s list, with $216.3 million in revenue and<br />
435 employees in 2017. That’s a revenue increase of 46 percent<br />
over 2015’s numbers, when it ranked No. 7, and 95 percent<br />
over 2013, when it ranked No. 9.<br />
For President and CEO Jeff<br />
Disterhoft, the organization’s<br />
growth has been both a constant<br />
and a challenge over the<br />
past few decades.<br />
“We’ve been averaging<br />
about 20 percent a year for<br />
20 years, so in that regard our<br />
growth has been comparable<br />
the last couple years to what<br />
we enjoyed 10 years ago, or<br />
maybe even 20 years ago,”<br />
Mr. Disterhoft said. “But I’m<br />
not naïve enough to not realize<br />
that 20 percent growth today<br />
is a little different than 20<br />
percent growth 20 years ago.”<br />
UICCU has faced its share<br />
of growing pains, Mr. Disterhoft<br />
offered, and is working hard to “get folks in the right<br />
seats on the bus,” but it has also grown into a lending and<br />
retail banking giant. It reported $4.67 billion in assets and<br />
$3.53 billion in deposits at the end of last year, making it the<br />
largest financial institution chartered in Iowa. It is also the<br />
largest purchase mortgage lender, and often the largest auto<br />
lender in the state.<br />
The credit union has found an organic formula for success<br />
in competitive rates and a methodical branch expansion plan<br />
that has added one or two new branches each year. That has<br />
taken UICCU’s black-and-gold brand into Black Hawk County,<br />
the Quad Cities and the central Iowa region – a move that “has<br />
gone really well for us,” Mr. Disterhoft said.<br />
Its newest branch opened in Waukee this April and an office<br />
in nearby Ankeny is planned for the fall.<br />
Another piece of the formula is UICCU’s focus on “capturing<br />
its own business” through its five-year old UICCU<br />
Insurance division. Policy sales are up 40 percent year over<br />
year, Mr. Disterhoft said, and offer a promising avenue for<br />
future growth.<br />
“We have really gone back to basics, and trying to capture<br />
the insurance on our home loans, our own car loans,” he said.<br />
“Once we get that part figured out, maybe we can go out marketing<br />
to the rest of the world, but right now we’re just trying<br />
to make sure we’re taking care of our own business, and we’re<br />
doing a better job of that finally.”<br />
UICCU’s success hasn’t come without a price, however. The<br />
credit union is the frequent target of attacks by the state’s banking<br />
industry, which charges that its nonprofit status allows it<br />
to undercut the competition and grow more aggressively. A<br />
$1.2 billion tax cut reform bill passed by the Iowa Senate in<br />
late February included<br />
a measure that would<br />
impose new taxes on<br />
credit unions and lower<br />
them on banks, although<br />
a separate bill<br />
backed by Gov. Kim<br />
Reynolds and the Iowa<br />
House does not include<br />
the provision.<br />
Mr. Disterhoft expressed<br />
confidence<br />
in the legislative process,<br />
noting that the<br />
House and the Governor’s<br />
Office have<br />
been “very supportive<br />
of credit unions,” and<br />
reiterated his industry’s<br />
position that its<br />
tax status saves Iowans<br />
money.<br />
A final agreement<br />
on a tax reform bill<br />
had not yet been<br />
reached as of this<br />
deadline.<br />
Culturally, UIC-<br />
CU continues to lead<br />
in the Corridor, with<br />
the company recently<br />
transitioning to an<br />
unlimited PTO model,<br />
where employees<br />
are allowed to take<br />
THE TEAM<br />
EXECUTIVE TEAM<br />
Jeff Disterhoft, President & CEO<br />
Todd Fanning, SVP & CFO<br />
Jim Kelly, SVP Marketing<br />
Sue Freeman, SVP HR<br />
Dick Noble, SVP Operations<br />
Steve Quigley, SVP Retail Services<br />
Amy Henderson, SVP Mortgage<br />
Scott Wilson, SVP Commercial<br />
BOARD OF DIRECTORS<br />
Karin Franklin, Chair<br />
Sarah Fisher Gardial, Vice Chair<br />
Dean Borg<br />
Laurel Day<br />
Fred Mims<br />
Mark Rolinger<br />
Lynsey Engels<br />
Tom Lepic<br />
Marc Moen<br />
Dave Wright<br />
Andre Perry<br />
SUPPORT TEAM<br />
Raddon Financial Group<br />
RSM US LLP<br />
TMG Financial Services<br />
Wilary Winn LLC<br />
as much time off as they need. Mr. Disterhoft acknowledged<br />
some anxiety about the policy change before it was instituted<br />
at the start of this year, but said it has ultimately been a positive<br />
step for the institution.<br />
“It’s going great. I think there was some trepidation by folks<br />
at the tail end of last year that nobody was going to show up<br />
for work on Jan. 1, but we’re coming up on the end of the first<br />
quarter, and lo and behold, our world works just fine.”<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
14 CBJ’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES <strong>2018</strong>