Carla Altepeter, of Oshkosh, Wis., who begins Sept. 1 as president and chief executive officer of Numerica Credit Union, says she has worked in the industry to build community ties.

Altepeter has spent almost 20 years as president and CEO of CitizensFirst Credit Union in Oshkosh, Wis., and is succeeding Numerica's Dennis Cutter, who is retiring Aug. 31 after 40 years as president and CEO.

Altepeter says one of her major goals at CitizensFirst involved taking a relatively unknown organization to a position as a market-share leader, and she says today the credit union has about 35 percent of customer market share there and strong name recognition. She also served on a number of community boards, including for the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce and the Boys & Girls Club.

"That was one of my goals, to raise the visibility of CitizensFirst in the community, "Altepeter says. "We have about 26 financial institutions in Oshkosh and 41 branches, with a population of 65,000 people, so the competition is pretty fierce."

She says the opportunity to head up the Spokane-based credit union brings her to a well-run organization with similar goals as CitizensFirst.

"I'm excited about Numerica being a community-minded organization, so the focus is similar to CitizensFirst," she says. "Although it's in a bigger market, it's the same focus on the community and on the members of Numerica."

Altepeter says CitizensFirst has grown in assets from $89 million in 1992, when she started work there and the credit union was called Wisconsin Axle, to $350 million as of mid-July.

Altepeter received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

At the state level, she has served as vice chairwoman of the Wisconsin Credit Union Foundation board of directors and of the Wisconsin Credit Union Review Board. She is a past member of the Wisconsin Credit Union League governmental affairs committee.

Nationally, Altepeter is a past board member of the Credit Union National Association. She now serves on the Credit Union Executive Society board and is its past chairman. She also was a delegate to the World Council of Credit Unions in 2008 and 2009.