On Friday, November 13, the board of directors of the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International released a statement announcing the resignation of Michael Beall as president and CEO of NCBA CLUSA.
During his three-year tenure as CEO and president, Beall “made numerous contributions to the financial and business operations of NCBA CLUSA,” the statement said, adding that Beall had left “to pursue other career opportunities” and will join the Tacoma, Washington-based Credit Union Strategic Planning as senior consultant.
“All of us here at NCBA CLUSA join in wishing Michael well in his new position,” the statement said.
The NCBA CLUSA board has named Judy Ziewacz, former executive director of the Cooperative Development Foundation, as interim CEO.
“I am pleased to once again serve NCBA CLUSA and the broader cooperative community during this transition period to ensure that the initiatives and priorities of NCBA CLUSA continue uninterrupted,” Ziewacz said. “The work NCBA CLUSA is engaged in both domestically and around the world promotes the resilience of the cooperative business model, and I look forward to working with our board, leadership team and staff to contribute to the ongoing success of the organization.”
For more than 35 years, Ziewacz has championed cooperative development. In 1985, she was instrumental in launching the nation’s first statewide co-op development center: the Wisconsin Cooperative Development Council, now known as Cooperative Development Services. She also played a key role in establishing CooperationWorks!, a national cooperative development network responsible for the creation of hundreds of co-ops and thousands of jobs.
She was a driving force behind the establishment and funding of the Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) Program in the 1990 Farm Bill. In 1996, she became the executive director of the Cooperative Development Foundation and later led the application process to secure dotCoop as a new Top Level Domain (TLD) for use by the international cooperative community. She currently serves on the boards of the National Cooperative Bank and Capital Impact Partners.
(November 18, 2015)