my upcoming conferences
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Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.
My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).
my peers
:.BankerVision
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:.Buzz Canuck
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:.CU Communicator
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:.Currency Marketing
:.Denise Wymore
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:.EverythingCU
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:.Open Source CU
:.Social Signal
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:.Tinfoiling
:.Trey Reeme
:.Verity's Our Voices
My friend Gene.
I'm a big fan of GonzoBanker.When I first started working at Vancity, I was brand new to financial services and started looking at industry websites to help orient and ground me in my new job.
I quickly came across GonzoBanker, and it is now one of the only leftovers from those early days of bookmarking. Their irreverent coverage of how IT issues can aid and hinder financial institutions is both useful and entertaining.
So today, I was thrilled to see that they named my friend Gene Blishen as their GonzoBanker of the Month.
Gene is my hero. He is a philosopher, humanitarian, technologist, futurist, banker and a decent, decent man. I look forward to reading his blog whenever he updates it, and his name always comes up when the people I respect the most name the people they respect the most.
It is an honour to be his direct BC credit union peer, be able to access his sage advice and plan BarCampBankBC with him.
So congrats Gene. Well deserved!
Labels: barcampbankbc, credit union, gonzobanker, tinfoiling, vancouver
posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
3 comments
Personally, I think the folks at GonzoBanker screwed up -- royally. Or maybe it was just a typo. GonzoBanker of the YEAR is more like it.
I'll say this about Gene -- If there were 10 Gene Blishens running the 10 largest FIs in North America, there would be no credit crisis, and financial institutions would be at the top of the list of the most respected industries -- and not at the bottom with the airlines.
comment from 
Ron Shevlin on July 19, 2008
Thanks Ron, I was hoping you'd weigh in. You touch on something so important.
Gene runs a small credit union in a distant suburb of Vancouver that serves about 1,800 members. It would be so easy to discount his efforts and actions because we don't pay attention to the small.
And yet, he serves as a model for the rest of us. He knows how to run an FI in a way that marries "It's A Wonderful Life" to the very modern world. He takes smart risks, and knows why he's doing what he's doing.
comment from
wazaroff on July 19, 2008
Hear, hear!
comment from
Lisa Hochgraf on July 21, 2008
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