Name
Nate Springer
Company/Organization
Honor Credit Union
What Does Your Company/Organization Do?
We are a financial institution that provides our members and the communities we serve with solutions for their financial success.
Age
30
Accomplishments
Professional:
- Completed Cornell University’s Strategy and Digital Marketing Certificate Program
- CUNA Certified Credit Union Marketing Executive (CUCME)
- Honor CU IGNITE Leadership Course Graduate
- MCUL 2016 AC&E Young Professional Crasher Nominee & 2018 Crasher Mentor
- Began my career at Honor Credit Union as an intern and have held several roles over the last 11 years, including most recently as Director of Marketing
Personal:
- 4+ years of marriage to an amazing wife
- Completed over five half-marathons
- Organized the MDOT Adopt-A-Highway for Honor CU IGNITE
- Volunteered for two KitchenAid Senior PGA Championships
What else do you hope to accomplish by the age of 40?
Professionally, I look forward to further growing in my role at Honor Credit Union and leading our marketing team as we continue to focus on investing in our local communities. Personally, I would love to become more involved with mentoring local youth in our community who share a similar passion for golf through the local First Tee program. My wife and I also hope to start a family of our own within the next few years.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing & Management – Grand Valley State University (2014)
Residence
Berrien Springs, MI
Where were you born?
Berrien Center, MI
What was your first job?
Farmhand at Stover’s Farm Market
Best advice you ever got?
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Who inspires you most?
Let’s call it a tie between my wife, late grand-father, and my current team at Honor Credit Union – they all inspire me in different ways.
That one thing about you we’d be most surprised to learn.
I’ve mastered my photography skills as certified “Instagram-husband” for my wife’s travel blog on our adventures together.
What do you love to do in your downtime?
One word: golf. If you’re looking for me during the months of May to October here in Michigan, and I’m not working, there’s a good chance I’m on a golf course somewhere looking to roll in a putt for birdie. Beyond golf, my wife and I love to travel, ski, spend time with our mini goldendoodle, Wrigley, spoil our nieces and nephews, and complete projects in and around our home.
What book are you reading now?
Always Forward, which is a fictional novel that was just recently published by one of my fellow Honor team members and 2020 40 Under 40 Alumnus, Adele (Cecilia) Garcia.
Volunteer activity you love the most.
United Way’s Rake-A-Difference. I love being outside and taking care of my yard, so it’s probably no surprise that spending a day cleaning up the yards of our local senior citizens who may not be able to do so on their own is one of my most rewarding days for me every year.
What motivates you to give back to your community?
Having been born and raised in Berrien County, and moved away for a few years in college, it really makes you appreciate the small-town way of life. It may sound cliché, but it is the people here who motivate me to give back. Every day at Honor CU I get to hear the stories of our members, business owners, and entrepreneurs and what makes them passionate – which in turn fuels my passion for making our community the best it can be.
What Superpower would you most love to have?
Teleportation. As someone who is not patient for anything, I just want to get where I need to be right away and skip the wait!
What has been the most eye-opening thing about the coronavirus pandemic for you, personally?
I think the most eye-opening part of the pandemic is seeing how much it has impacted each and everyone one of us. There isn’t one person who hasn’t felt the weight of the last year-and-a-half in some way. As a leader in the financial industry, it’s been rewarding to partner with our members during this difficult time whether that is through stimulus payments, financial assistance, or paycheck protection program loans.
What does the honor of being named to the 40 Under 40 most mean to you?
I am truly humbled to have been selected as a nominee of this award. Michigan’s Great Southwest is filled with so many passionate and forward-thinking young professionals, all striving to make a positive impact right here in our local communities. Being named to the 40 Under 40 list makes me realize that others around me have seen and recognized the work I’m doing every day and that it’s making a difference in their eyes.
