Well, let me explain something, Gateway is very unique … In fact, I think there's only one in the world as far as I could work out. Gateway used to be called the Commonwealth Bank Officers Association Credit Union. And to repeat, as far as I know, we were the only credit union in the world set up by bankers, for bankers. And at one stage, before my time, Gateway was the largest mutual in the southern hemisphere, and consistently the fastest growing mutual – Paul Thomas
Paul Thomas was CEO of Gateway Bank from 2005-2019, a period which saw them successfully see off the Global Financial Crisis, voted credit union of the year in 2012, 2016 and 2017 and make a smooth transition to the mutual bank ranks.
Prior to that Paul had a twelve-year stint with Cuscal when it was the credit union peak body. His work there included a position as Corporate Relationship Manager and he led the GST Implementation Team in 2000.
Paul’s work in mutuals began in a building society in 1980 and our recent oral history interview with him was illuminating. The full transcript of the interview will be available on our website soon.
