The boss at Minnesota's fourth-largest lender, Wings Financial Credit Union, said Monday that he will retire at the end of the year.
Chief Executive Paul Parish, who has led the Apple Valley-based credit union for 20 years, said he told the board recently that he wanted to leave as Wings completes the integration of mergers with two smaller organizations this year.
He is leaving at age 56 and said he has long planned to retire by 58.
"I should be starting to work on the five-to 10-year strategic plan," Parish said. "I told the board that the next person should lay that plan and execute it. It's a great time for me to hand it off to somebody else. Wings is well positioned for the next life-cycle phase."
Wings had net earnings last year of $23.8 million. It is considered well-capitalized with member equity of about $292 million, or about 9 percent of its $3.2 billion in assets, according to financial statements on file with its regulator, the National Credit Union Administration.
Last fall, Wings absorbed the financially troubled City-County Federal Credit Union, with $471 million in assets. Earlier, it merged with flagging, St. Paul-based Highgrove Credit Union, with $37 million in assets.
"Paul and the management team have successfully led the organization through the economic challenges of the last several years, have managed the smooth merger of two credit unions ... and expanded our service area to include anyone living or working in the Twin Cities area," Wings Chairman Michael Cooper said.
Parish, son of a teachers' credit union manager in Wisconsin, came to what was then NWA Credit Union from a credit union in Kenosha, Wis.
