FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn.–SPIRE Credit Union’s Jon Seeman was recently awarded the prestigious CFO of the Year Award by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The CFO of the Year Awards program recognizes achievements of financial officers who play a vital role in making businesses, institutions and nonprofits successful.
With over three decades of experience as a leader in finance, Jon serves as Vice President/CFO for SPIRE, the 2015 top-rated SNL credit union in Minnesota. His first leadership position was Vice President of Accounting and Finance for First National Bank of Anoka. Over the years, he has served in many leadership capacities, having served as a Lead Financial Analyst and Senior Analyst of Mergers and Acquisitions for Norwest Bank; Senior Vice President of Financial, Executive Vice President and Interim President at Teacher Federal Credit Union (now Trustone FCU); and President/CEO at City-County Federal Credit Union.
Jon Seeman’s work since joining the SPIRE team in July 2010 has resulted in astounding improvements to SPIRE’s financial position. In July 2009, SPIRE’s financials were at $563M in assets; ($11.5M) in net income; net worth at 6.35%, ROA at (2.02%) and membership at 61,998. Under Jon’s leadership, several key changes were implemented to build SPIRE’s capital position. His efforts, in conjunction with the merger of two healthy credit unions in 2014, GMCU and SPIRE, resulted in vastly improved financials. From 12-31-2009 to 6-30-2015, nearly the entirety of Jon’s tenure, assets grew $231M to $794M; net income improved by $13.5M; net worth improved by over 42% to 9.03%; ROA improved to 0.50%; and membership, now steadily increasing, grew by 23,678, or 38%. SPIRE has seen record earnings for four consecutive years and doubled its equity from $35 million to $70 million in the last five years.
Throughout 2014, and into 2015, Jon’s biggest project at SPIRE was actively managing the financial, human resources and risk management aspects of the merger of SPIRE and Greater Minnesota Credit Unions. Special care and consideration were given during all aspects of the merger. The merger was an historical partnership in that both credit unions were in healthy financial positions, and mutually decided to join forces. The merger combined Greater Minnesota Credit Union’s (GMCU’s) approximately $150 million in assets with SPIRE’s $625 million. With a total of 84,000 members, SPIRE now boasts the third largest credit union membership in the state. Post-merger, SPIRE is a 16 branch credit union, and Jon actively oversees the nearly $800 million portfolio.
“This honor could not have been bestowed upon a more deserving individual. Jon Seeman’s work since joining the SPIRE team has resulted in astounding improvements to SPIRE’s financial position,” said Dan Stoltz, SPIRE President/CEO, “His steadfast focus on results has proven invaluable to SPIRE’s and our membership.”
In addition to his role as Vice President/CFO for SPIRE, Jon oversees the Human Resources, Facilities Management and Risk Management functions within the organization. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, a previously active Certified Public Accountant and previously certified through the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) as a Compliance Officer. In his free time, Jon enjoys spending time at the lake as well as traveling during the winter months. Coming from a family of NFL officials, he is also an avid sports fan.