Business View Magazine | January 2021

294 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021 Union Association, and found a data breach. Their product suite was ancient, the community was angry with them, and the corporate culture was at an all-time low. “Our culture was absolutely terrible,” says Rzewnicki. “Morale was poor and there was in- fighting within the organization. Our technology was also terrible. We had a core system that went down at 10 minutes after the hour, on the hour. Our tellers and our member experience reps knew this was going on, so they would just stop helping members five to ten minutes before that, for fear they would get halfway through the transaction and it would just kick them out. A horror story would be an understatement for what we went through.” The only strategic plan leftover from previous management was a 40-page document that no one understood or knew how to execute. So the new team buckled down and started from scratch. Despite all the difficulties thrown at them, Dover Federal’s leadership team took this as an opportunity to revamp the company for the better, without giving up on its members. “My IT team likes to say that in all aspects of the credit union, we changed the engine in the car without pulling over,” says Travis Frey, Chief Innovation & Operations Officer for Dover Federal. First chartered in 1958 by air force and civilian workers at the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, the credit union’s goal was to create a member-owned financial cooperative AT A GLANCE DOVER FEDERAL CREDIT UNION WHAT: Federally chartered credit union WHERE: Headquartered in Dover, Delaware WEBSITE: www.doverfcu.com