Photo courtesy of Workers Credit Union
Sandesh Parulekar
Chief Information Officer, Workers Credit Union
Industry experience: 12 years
Sandesh Parulekar has recently been hired by Leominster-basedWorkers Credit Union and will be the credit union’s new chief information officer.
Parulekar previously worked for Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union in various roles. As vice president of engineering there, he was credited with improving customer-facing technology, building out AI/ML capabilities and streamlining back-office operations through automation and business process management.
His latest move sees Parulekar leave the technological giant that is DCU for a relatively smaller institution. While DCU boasts $12 billion in assets and 1.1 million members nationwide, Workers Credit Union has $2.4 billion in assets and nearly 122,000 members.
Now Parulekar will be responsible for developing and executing Workers Credit Union’s digital transformation strategy and driving innovation.
Parulekar holds a bachelor of engineering in computer science from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute at Bombay University in Mumbai, India, and an MBA in finance from Boston University.
Q: What made you want to leave DCU for a smaller credit union?
A: DCU, I was there for four and a half years – a great credit union. They have a large footprint in the New England area. They do a lot of community work, so it was a great organization. I saw the opportunity at Workers Credit union open up and this one also has a storied history, almost 111 years. That was one of the important things. For me, I think the credit union industry, their focus on community over profit, it aligns with my own values. So, I decided to stay in the industry.
Q: How will you look to innovate now that you are with Worker’s Credit Union?
A: I want to make sure that Workers Credit Union’s there for the next 100 years, but also stays relevant – relevant to the community, to its members – and part of that is to continue to invest in technology that is meaningful for the members, to the way they access different services and products to different channels. We will be focusing on enhancing our overall services through the different channels. We’ll be looking at taking advantage of AI and Gen AI, all the technology, the rapid improvements that are happening. We want to make sure that we use those technologies in a safe and sound manner, but also to serve our members better. [We also want to] drive, internally, some of the operational efficiencies that actually are benefiting from these new technologies.
Q: How important is providing proper technological tools to customers in this current era of banking?
A: I think it is very important. Technology is key. Building the right partnerships, that is important, and then leveraging the data to really understand what our members are looking for, and then targeting and providing the right tools, products and services is very relevant. Everybody nowadays is looking at convenience, because there are so many things happening in life, people are busy. So, providing the right solution at the right place is a key scheme and it definitely is at the forefront for us.
Q: You touched on how you value credit unions in general, but also Workers, Credit Union’s commitment to the community. How important is community banking when the industry is continuing to see consolidation that can see local institutions get eaten up by larger companies?
A: When I came into the country, at that time, I banked with Bank of Boston. Then it was bought by Bank of America [in 2004]. I saw my own journey as a personal account-holder; that [merger] created some gaps in the communities. There are specific needs for each community, whether it is member-specific, small business-specific, that we need to address. So, building tools, technologies and getting involved in the community, that’s important to me as well. In the past, when I was at Digital Federal Credit Union, we used to work with UMass Lowell because education and financial literacy are important for me. I was a judge at the DifferenceMaker Challenge at UMass Lowell, and then we did that for a couple of years, participating in some of the capstone projects more in the data and analytics space. That’s some of the things I want to do more at Workers as well, getting involved in the local colleges and universities.
Q: How do you hope to help gain new customers for Workers Credit Union in what’s shaping up to be a difficult year for the entire economy?
A: I think there are a lot of unknowns that are there, but at the same time, our focus is to control what we can control, and that is about looking at the data, understanding our member needs and improving our technology, our products and services. That’s what we’re going to focus on and we’re going to do it more as a collaborative approach.
Parulekar’s Five Favorite New England Patriots Games
- Super Bowl LI
- Super Bowl XXXVI
- Super Bowl XLIX
- 2018 AFC Championship Game
- 2001 AFC Divisional Round
