2022 Awards of Excellence - Melissa Fitzmaurice

 

Nomination Letter:
Metro Credit Union is the largest state-charted credit union in Massachusetts, approaching $3 billion in assets and serving over 200,000 members. Melissa Fitzmaurice is VP Technology at Metro Credit Union, leading the teams that are the middleware or “super glue” between our functional business units and our technologies. Melissa and her teams execute on some of the most critical initiatives for the credit union and she is key to enabling our overall success.  When Metro’s senior management team discussed nominations for this award, Melissa’s name was raised by everyone at the table. This speaks to her solutions-focused approach to the work that we do and strong collaborative relationships that she maintains even in times of challenge. 

Melissa has been with Metro Credit Union for over eleven years, having joined the organization by way of a merger in 2011. Having a broad background at her former credit union, Melissa stepped into a branch management role for several years and was a strong contributor on the retail management team. Over the next few years, she was promoted through the Mortgage Operations department as the Mortgage Administration Manager and then as a Project Manager within the PMO directing lending-related implementations and conversions associated with Metro’s largest-ever technology strategy initiative (Operation Transformation).

Squarely in the middle of our core conversion efforts, we were faced with COVID-19 and its overwhelming myriad of roadblocks. Faced with a difficult decision, the management team elected to move forward with the conversion as originally planned and rewrote the playbook to execute all activities remotely. While the organization learned to collaborate in a remote, work-from-home environment, Melissa and the team restructured the entire project around these changes. They were able to pivot time and time again to keep efforts on track while sustaining team morale during a time when sharp focus was required but hard to come by. Melissa proved that she thrives in times of challenge; she has a grounding presence for those around her. Calming the storm, she is able to take complex issues and break them down into their most basic, helping her counterparts address the building blocks that lead to successful problem solving. Her broad background in both front and back office pairs incredibly well with her growing technology skills – she is able to keep both the member experience and the employee experience in view as she makes recommendations for improvements in processes.

On the successful completion of these technology conversions, including but not limited to core, online banking, consumer lending LOS, mortgage lending POS, commercial lending LOS, and debit/credit card processing, Melissa was asked to lead a diverse team of technologists to multiply our efforts to automate key business processes and drive growth through new products and services. She has current responsibility for our Technology Business Partners, Project/Change Managers, and our Strategic Intelligence function.

In my time working closely with Melissa in this capacity, I have noted her professionalism, attention to detail, mentorship of others, and her tireless efforts to do what is right for the Credit Union and its members. She is a strong leader and has an innate capability to translate Metro’s strategic priorities into tactical efforts for her team. She is called upon by those around her as a subject-matter expert in many areas, and continually applies her learning to the next challenge. As a Young Professional, Melissa is a mom to 2 small children and demonstrates what it looks like to balance a successful career with the importance of family life. She is a role model to those around her.

After sharing Melissa’s story, I am sure you can see why I am excited to nominate Melissa Fitzmaurice for the CCUA Awards of Excellence, Young Professional of the Year.