by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
John Hirabayashi is a competitive guy both inside and outside the office. Whether he’s challenging co-workers to foot races or working tirelessly to improve company performance, for him, the quest to be the best is never-ending.
“Yeah, I’m competitive, but strictly in a good-natured way,” said the president and CEO of Educational Community Credit Union. “I’d like to think that, by challenging ourselves, we can keep things interesting here and also work towards building teamwork.”
On this particular day, Hirabayashi, 46, has rallied a trio of credit union colleagues into throwing a football in front of ECCU’s LaVilla headquarters. The contest centers around determining who can throw the ball the farthest. However once it begins, finding a winner seems to have no bearing. Rather, each participant seems more interested in competing with themselves, hoping only to improve with each turn.
“At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about,” Hirabayashi said. “We want strong players who can grow, recognize their individual functions and strengths and work well together. That’s how you build strong organization.”
It’s cohesion, he said, that ultimately works in the favor of ECCU’s ever-growing membership. Hirabayashi said there are more than 96,000 ECCU members. Taking into account the 100 or so added everyday, he said, the 100,000 benchmark should be crossed in a few months.
More branch offices may also be on the way, adding to the 15 already open in Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties. Combined they employ approximately 225 people.
“But the real milestone will be when we reach $1 billion in assets,” he said. “We’re at about $855 million right now so it’s really exciting to be getting this close. It shows how far we’ve come.”
Born in Minneapolis of Japanese parents and raised in Virginia, Hirabayashi has enjoyed a relatively quick rise up the corporate ladder. Although, at one time, unsure if he would even be attending college, he earned his Finance degree from the University of Colorado and went to work right away. Hirabayashi’s first job was with Pentagon Federal Credit Union.
“It happened pretty quickly,” he said. “I saw an ad in the paper and after I was hired, I was enrolled in a program for bank manager trainees.”
Quickly promoted to Financial Advisor, Hirabayashi was branch manager at the credit union by the time he was 27. A decade and several promotions later, he moved to Jacksonville in 1996, upon being hired by ECCU.
At that time, the credit union had only a fraction of the membership and assets it has today. Hirabayashi helped grow both exponentially during his first few years on the job.
“I mean this in the most honest way,” said the father of four. “I love what I do and love this industry. I wake up feeling good because being able to improve our members quality of life is a wonderful thing.”
A high quality of life is also the main reason Hirabayashi felt instantly comfortable with his decision to live, work and raise a family here.
“To me, Jacksonville is a city with its hard in the right place,” he said. “I really think it speaks for itself, but the city seems to strive to do better in a very natural way. It’s been amazing for me to see that. I see us as being on the very cusp of a lot of growth this year.”