Who is usaa ceo

And speed would be one of the things I think we have learned a lot about during that period. I remember [asking] Andrew Walker , our chief administrative officer, if he could send 10, people home so we could practice on how that might work before we sent 35, people home. And the next Friday, we made the decision to send everyone home, and over the next seven or eight, nine days, we moved the entire workforce home. So I would tell you that when the chips are down, you can do just about anything.

Speed matters is one of the primary lessons. Now, what have we learned from being at home? I think we really pressed the envelope, like many companies that have a distributed workforce and are taking advantage of virtual tools. I recall [during] so much of my career the kind of organic or happenstance encounters — meeting in the hallway — where you get to replay what happened and learn about how to do it better next time.

What about reintegrating your workforce? How does USAA do that? The footprint is going to be configured differently. And again, this may be one of those things that we were practicing pre-Covid that our knowledge now has accelerated our learning on how you build collaborative and teaming spaces. So the physical footprint will be configured differently. Do you see yourself at least maintaining the presences you have in the cities that you are in and then just expanding to more cities?

The world continues to evolve, and we will continue to evolve with it. More and more banking skills, more and more deep insurance skills, technology, design, data and analytics are all many of the emerging skills that are required to run a large financial institution, especially one that is moving into the digital economy as USAA is. Where do you see the banking division going? Where do you see its biggest growth opportunities?

And what are the challenges to overcome? Right now, we are working through — as we are across USAA — major investments in our technology, infrastructure or systems, processes, and talent to be able to operate digitally at scale. But at its core, I think we will — as we have since we did phone banking way back in the day — be self-service. And we will be very limited in our physical footprint.

And Covid has actually accelerated that progress as well. The amount of cash being translated into debit card usage across the banking industry has been phenomenal. And I think we move more and more to using digital rather than using paper money — so less and less reasons to go in the branch.

And obviously, how you move money, how you manage that money, how you access debt are all changing as this ecosystem of fintechs and banks and sort-of-banks that are emerging are all fighting for share of wallet with consumers as we go forward. And they often look to their leaders to see that they are taking care of themselves.

So what do you do to get away and destress? Or can you even do that? Yes, not enough. Our focus is on providing advice coupled with insurance and banking solutions that will help our members achieve financial security. Our products range from auto, home, renters and life insurance to credit card, checking, savings, and home and auto loans. Additionally, in the last few years, we teamed up with Victory Capital and Charles Schwab to offer our members a vast array of affordable investment options.

At USAA, you have members — not customers or clients. Why is that a meaningful distinction for you? Being a member implies a deeper relationship than simply being a customer.

USAA members are part of a family that shares common values. We have their backs. They recommend us, defend us and act as our constant inspiration through the example of their selfless service. Our strategic direction is guided by what will benefit our membership. How has USAA adapted its business to address the challenges caused by the pandemic and how proud are you to see the resilience of the USAA workforce during this challenging and uncertain time?

The pandemic required us to think quicker and be more innovative in how we manage and empower our workforce. When we are working at a faster pace, as we have since March , we use the best information we have to make the best decisions we can and we commit to change and adapt as needed. Agility matters. Before the pandemic, members already could conduct most USAA banking and insurance transactions digitally or by phone.

We had hoped to facilitate nearly percent contactless insurance claims by For years before the pandemic, we had wrestled with the puzzle of accommodating more employees to work from home. In March , we successfully transitioned approximately 30, employees to work from home — in just nine days. Combined with the thousands already permanently working from home, that added up to approximately 98 percent of our workforce working remotely.

We provided equipment and during the early days of the pandemic, we provided groceries and prepared food from drive-thru sites at many of our campus locations. We are actively reimagining the workplace and workforce of the future with innovations in recruiting and hiring talent.

The success of working from home over the last year has allowed us to draw the best talent from anywhere, increasing our competitiveness and boosting the diversity USAA needs to remain relevant and attuned to member needs.

In addition, we are committed to upskilling our current employees by creating robust learning experiences and career development opportunities that include holistic, personalized and remote learning programs. I would tell you that really connecting with people and knowing that you are making a difference in how they show up at work every day has been the most rewarding thing for me so far. A: Somebody asked me the other day, are you having fun in this job? What I told them was, I feel very fulfilled in this job.

I think we are in a period of great change, and I think we have to change at the pace of business. So what I believe is true about my tenure here is you have someone who is a demonstrated change-agent, but someone who also understands the inner workings of this big, complex company. So think about me as the insider who also has the outsider, change-agent capabilities.

A: The answer to that is yes, we are. The first step for us is really fulfilling our aspiration that no matter who you are or your background, you have a sense of belonging at USAA and … you have the opportunity to reach your potential as an employee, as a teammate, as a leader at USAA. That is our underlying and strong aspiration and goal for this work. That starts with having conversations about how people feel in both of those areas.

What we have done in the last six to eight weeks or so is opened up the conversation inside of USAA to have those tough, awkward conversations about how people feel, not only at work but how they feel at home or on the streets, or how they have felt in their childhood growing up, in a way that has never been true at USAA before. So that is the first step — being willing to have those open and real conversations.

So we are working through a series of programs that will help us build our pipeline in our population of diverse employees and teammates. We will have a series of programs that advance the opportunity for people of color and those who feel like they are in those communities to have better advancement at USAA.

We will talk more about that internally over the next couple of months. A lot of that is around how we build digital capabilities to meet our members where they are. Patrick Danner Patrick Danner covers banking, insurance, business litigation and bankruptcies.

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