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Jimmy Carter was in the second year of his presidency when Olga Villarreal showed up for her first day on the job as a part-time teller for Valley Federal Credit Union on July 12, 1978.
On July 31, Villarreal, who became CEO of the credit union in 1999, will step down — 45 years and 19 days after her first day. The Brownsville native and lifelong resident of the city will bid farewell to friends and colleagues she’s worked side by side with for decades in some cases.
Rachel Sauceda, VFCU’s chief financial officer, has been with the organization 42 years, for instance, and Villarreal said the two are very close.
“I’ve got a lot of tenure on the front line, like Norma Jasso, who’s taking my position,” she said. “She’s been with me 28 years. I’ve got a couple of loan officers that have been with me over 30 years.”
When she took over as CEO, Villarreal set out to create a family-type environment and a place where employees had a future, where it was possible to advance regardless of educational background as long as one was willing to put in some work hard, she said. Villarreal noted that she herself rose to the top job with just a high-school degree.
“I always learned from the CEOs that were there prior to me what I didn’t want to be like,” she said. “You care both personally and professionally for (the employees).”
Cultivating a positive workplace environment also helps keep people from leaving, Villarreal added.
“I love my work and my employees love to work there too,” she said. “I think that’s what makes our place different. We’ve created a very good environment where people want to stay.”
Plenty of changes have taken place over 45 years, Villarreal acknowledged, especially when it comes to technology.
“When I started we were on ledger books,” she said. “We didn’t even have computers. Everything was paper.”
VFCU was founded in 1935 and at first served only federal employees.
Eventually, it went countywide, and today “anybody living and breathing in Cameron or Willacy county can join,” Villarreal said. There is also a Harlingen branch.
VFCU has served multiple generations of the same families, she said, describing it “the Vermillion” of credit unions, referring to the landmark Brownsville restaurant that opened the year before VFCU.
“I’ve got the grandmother, the parent, the son, the grandchild,” Villarreal said. “Me, my children and my grandchildren are all members.”
Despite the rise of mobile banking, many members still prefer to do their business in person, she said.
“They want to talk to their loan officer if they’ve been there a long time,” Villarreal said. “They’d rather come in than being on the phone. They still want to come in and talk.”
The way I see things, if you run a business (be) humble and true and always look in the mirror. You have to be humble and stay kind. Treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s my motto.
While she loves her job and will miss her colleagues, Villarreal said she told them “not to worry, I’ll be showing up a lot,” adding that her husband has been retired for 12 years and that it’s time she joined him.
“It’ll be nice to travel and visit my family and not have to come home to work, stay as long as I want, just enjoy life,” Villarreal said. “I plan to maybe volunteer on one of the (VFCU) committees, the supervisory committee or the board of directors. I want to volunteer my time for that, once a month or something like that.”
Finally, she shared her philosophy of management — and life in general.
“The way I see things, if you run a business (be) humble and true and always look in the mirror,” Villarreal said. “You have to be humble and stay kind. Treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s my motto.”
