During her 33-year tenure, which started with a part-time teller role at Pioneer Credit Union, Lisa Huguet has advanced through front-line and back-office roles. She joined Pioneer’s accounting and finance team in 2009, and this experience gave her key perspective when Pioneer merged with Capital Credit Union in 2014, forming a $1.2 billion company with more than 90,000 members.
“With my experience in data, information technology and finance, I played a pivotal role in not only the financial aspect, but the combination of products, services and processes throughout the merger and various system conversions,” Huguet says.
Huguet, who became Capital’s CFO in 2019, says another challenge was “navigating the 11 Federal Reserve rate hikes from March 2022 through July 2023 … margins were squeezed, and we needed to stick true to the credit union mission of ‘people helping people.’”
Recently, she launched a “1% Better” campaign, encouraging employees to find efficiencies, with an estimated $835,000 in annual savings identified.
Huguet, who earned degrees from UW-Green Bay and Lakeland University, says new financial leaders should use available technology, develop strong strategic thinking, be curious and build interpersonal skills.
