Michael Joel-Hansen
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
When Saskatchewan’s newest credit union officially comes into being, it will boast branding and leadership that many of its members find familiar.
The merged entity, which will be made up of Conexus, Synergy and Cornerstone Credit Unions, will take on the Conexus Credit Union name. It will be led by that credit union’s CEO, Celina Philpot. Members of the three credit unions voted in favour of coming together in June.
Philpot will take on her new duties Jan. 1, 2026, when the new credit union officially comes into existence. Philpot said her primary focus before that is laying the ground-work to ensure a smooth transition.
“Right now it’s the planning phase, more so than the execution component,” she said.
Important tasks include putting together the senior leadership team which will oversee the new entity.
The merged credit union is expected to have $15 billion worth of assets under management, and a workforce of 1,400 people. When the three institutions announced plans to explore merging they cited increased regulatory costs, along with competition from Canada’s Big Six banks and online financial platforms, as major factors.
Philpot said other important work involves bringing all three institutions onto the same banking systems. She said it will take some time before all three operations are fully integrated and members can bank at all 57 branches that make up the new credit union.
“We’ve got a lot of work still ahead of us,” she said.
To do this, Philpot said she will work closely with the current CEOs of Synergy and Cornerstone. The three credit unions will continue to operate as separate legal entities until next year. Philpot said she hopes she will have the chance to visit communities where Synergy and Cornerstone operate.
“I would love to reach out to those communities and meet the staff and the members within those locations,” she said.
As part of the transition, the three credit unions have put in place an inaugural board which will officially step in when the new credit union is legally constituted. The work of this inaugural board has included naming the new entity and selecting the CEO.
Ken Kosolofski, current Conexus board chair, also sits on the inaugural board. He said only in-house options were considered when making decisions on who the CEO would be along with naming the new credit union.
When it came to the CEO appointment, Kosolofski said an outside firm was brought in to work with the inaugural board to determine which of the three current credit union CEOs was the best candidate for the position. After the inaugural board made its choice, the decision was sent back to the three credit union boards for approval. Kosolofski said all three CEOs were strong candidates.
“It was a very difficult decision,” he said.
Kosolofski said the board followed a similar process when it came to picking a name for the new credit union. A third party research firm was brought in to make an assessment. Kosolofski said the firm found the Conexus name had the most upside province-wide.
“This is the name that people most recognize. The brand equity is there,” he said.
