Kris Mecham: plowing forward with experience.

• Author: Creager, Janine S.
• Position: Spotlight

Kris Mecham is driven in more ways than one. Whether in his role as president and CEO of Deseret First Credit Union (DFCU), or on the golf course with his sons, Mecham is committed to whatever is required of him.

"One of the things that golfers like to do is hit the driver off the tee," says Mecham. But, he adds, in business as well as in golf, "It's not how far they drive the ball, it's how few strokes it takes you to get to the hole. At the end of the day, we're the ones who provide the best service."

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Although Mecham travels the region with DFCU, and across the country in his additional role as chairman of the board of directors of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), he still considers himself just a farm boy from Idaho.

"I learned that sometimes, patience is far more valuable in achieving the desired result rather than being first," he says, recalling his own anxiousness at seeing a neighbor's field plowed before their own. "Many times my father would say, 'You cannot rush the time of the field' and would have me hold off a few days. Later, I learned there were many pitfalls ranging from creating more clods in an effort to groom the soil to exposing young plants to frost damage by planting too early."

This well-learned lesson, among many others, has stayed with Mecham throughout his life and career.

At age 22, Mecham entered the credit union industry as a junior in college, when he was hired as the manager of the Atomic Workers (now Westmark) Credit Union in Blackfoot, Idaho. When graduation came, there was no place else he wanted to be.

"The credit union business has been my entire career," he says. "I saw my job as a means to the end [initially, but when I...