Five Questions With: Joseph Lajoie

Joseph Lajoie
JOSEPH LAJOIE is executive vice president and chief financial officer at Greenwood Credit Union. / COURTESY GREENWOOD CREDIT UNION

Joseph Lajoie is executive vice president and chief financial officer at Greenwood Credit Union. Lajoie was recently promoted to the position of executive vice president, and he oversees finance, information technology and loan and deposit operations at the credit union. He talks with Providence Business News about the new position, his resume and what’s most challenging about operations at a credit union.

PBN: Congratulations on your new position, what new responsibilities are you taking over?

LAJOIE: The title change was part of a senior team reorganization after the hiring of our new CEO, who stated that it ‘is reflective of Joe’s role in setting the financial direction of the credit union,’ where I will focus more intently on the operations and financial management areas of the institution.

PBN: Tell our readers a little bit about your professional history and how that will help you with your new position?

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LAJOIE: I have a very diverse accounting background, from my early days in the tax department at Fleet Bank, to a senior partnership accountant at Nautic Partners, a venture-capital firm, to my days as a tax accountant at KPMG, which provided me the work experience needed to land my first job in a credit union back in 2003 with Navigant Credit Union as assistant vice president, controller. Upon starting my credit union accounting career, I knew right away that there was no other industry I would ever want to work in, and I gained the knowledge and experience required to move to Greenwood Credit Union as chief financial officer in 2007.

PBN: What are your personal and professional goals under this new title?

LAJOIE: To help the Greenwood Credit Union management team continue to be successful in providing great value to our members, the community and our employees, who make it all happen on a day-to-day basis.

PBN: How would you describe financial well-being of Greenwood Credit Union?

LAJOIE: Greenwood Credit Union is a very sound and stable financial institution, and with our financial success we are able to offer our members lower interest rates on loans and higher interest rates on deposits along with some of the lowest fees in the market.  It all comes down to the collaborative and cooperative spirit of credit unions and the fact that we are owned by the members and that is who we are primarily here to serve.

PBN: What’s most challenging about running a credit union in Warwick?

LAJOIE: One of our biggest challenges is getting the people who are not currently members of a credit union to understand the amazing value of credit union membership versus just being another customer of a big bank. There is currently a regional promotional campaign being run by the Cooperative Credit Union Association called ‘Better Values, Better Banking,’ which does a great job pointing out the impactful difference a credit union can make for its members.

Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer.

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