Larry Wilson Listens to the Music

by Courtney Doi
May 2009

Larry Wilson equates his job as president and CEO of Coastal Federal Credit Union with that of a conductor of a symphony. In the music world, a conductor decides how a musical score should sound and then leads the performers to realize his vision by executing the right notes at the right speed.

At his not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative, Wilson, 62, develops policies and strategic plans with his board of directors and then, like a conductor, works with his staff and the credit union members to carry out those plans and procedures.

In Wilson’s 35 years with Coastal, it has grown from a small financial institution to one with $2 billion in assets and 191,000 members, creating sweet music to the members’ ears. Wilson, however, refuses to take the credit.

"I just helped in getting our teamwork together," Wilson says. "It’s really been me challenging our members and employees to try to reach for more rewards. It’s been our team more than me that has been successful leading us into the position today. I’ve been very fortunate in attracting very good employees and very talented individuals to lead the organization."

The reward, Wilson says, is not necessarily in the numbers, but in the success had by credit union members: whether purchasing a home or a car, saving for retirement or the birth of a new child, paying for higher education, or seeing employees prosper in their own careers.

With the current economic downturn, these successes do not come without stumbling blocks. Wilson says it’s a struggle to develop strategies for the credit union in today’s ever-changing financial environment. "It’s also challenging to convince people that they should plan their finances around needs and not wants," he says, noting that it’s hard to get people to buy what they can afford in a home, an automobile or any other consumer purchase.

As a native of St. Pauls in rural Robeson County, Wilson is not one to judge his members’ decisions. He says he brings the values that his parents taught him and that he learned growing up in a small town to his job.

"You have to treat everyone fairly," Wilson says. "Everybody has value no matter their walk of life. And you have to look for the good in people. Keep a positive outlook on life, and realize that things aren’t going to go your way everyday."

Thanks to Wilson’s long-term experience and success with Coastal, he now serves on numerous credit union national boards and committees. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Eastern North Carolina Better Business Bureau and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU).

With all of his responsibilities, Wilson says it’s a challenge to schedule, balance and manage his time, admitting that he probably spends too many hours at the office and away from his wife, Judy. While Wilson and his wife never had children, they often help out with their nieces and nephews. Wilson likes to spend time with his wife either seeing movies, dancing, or going to the theater. He loves to play golf and cheer for his hometown Carolina Hurricanes.

While there are some things, like running or swimming laps, Wilson says he can’t do as well as he did thirty years ago, he still approaches life in the same manner he always has. "I’ve got the kind of personality that I don’t think about getting old," Wilson says. "My mother taught me to wake up in the morning and think you’re young and think positive."

Luckily for Coastal, Wilson applies his youthful outlook to his day-to-day work. "I approach the job as a work in progress and one that is never finished," he says. "A student never learns everything so you have to keep learning. I challenge myself daily to do more than I did the day before."

Courtney Doi is a freelance writer in Raleigh.

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