When Bill Raker started his professional life, he thought he’d be a teacher and perhaps move up in education administration.

But a detour into the credit union movement led to a lifelong passion, says Raker, president/CEO of $1.24 billion asset Firefly Credit Union in Burnsville, Minn.

“This has turned out to be absolutely the right career, the right profession for me to be engaged in," Raker says. "I count myself very lucky that I got into this business at the time that I did and had such a long period of time to participate and to contribute."

Raker plans to retire at the end of the year.

In an interview with the CUNA News Podcast, Raker reflects on his career accomplishments and offers advice for the next generation of credit union leaders.

“We need really good leaders in the credit union space. We've had some tremendous people over the years that have changed credit unions in momentous ways, but they're retiring,” Raker says. “We need to be recruiting, training, and preparing young people to take on these leadership roles because they are becoming more complex.”

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