FROM STAFF REPORTS

Dennis Dollar, principal partner of Dollar Associates LLC in Shelby County, has been voted by the readers of Credit Union Times as the Most Influential Credit Union Leader Since 1990.

The selection was made by the readers of Credit Union Times, the credit union industry’s largest trade publication, in an online poll that began with 64 nominees, and was conducted in a Final Four bracket-style competition over a seven-week period from October to November, according to a press release.

Dollar is one of the credit union industry’s figures in the field of regulatory and strategic issues and has been a principal at Dollar Associates LLC, his Birmingham-based consultancy, since 2005.

Dollar Associates LLC works specifically with credit unions and organizations that serve them.

Prior to forming his consultancy, Dollar served as chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) from 2001-2004 and as a member of the presidential appointed NCUA Board since 1997.

Dollar is also a former credit union CEO, originally from Gulfport, Miss., where he was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1976-1984.

He relocated his consulting firm from the Washington, D.C. area to Birmingham in 2005.

“It is quite humbling and a tremendous honor to have been voted the most influential leader in our industry over the past 25 years,” Dollar wrote in the release. “To receive such a recognition in a vote of one’s industry peers is even more rewarding, particularly when there were a total of 64 nominees of which any could be considered a stalwart in credit union industry influence.”

According to Dollar, he was surprised as a former regulator that he would win such recognition.

“Even though I had been a credit union CEO before becoming a regulator and have worked as a consultant with hundreds of credit unions since leaving NCUA,” Dollar wrote, “I didn’t really expect to get out of the early rounds of this competition because the decisions a regulator has to make do not always generate popularity. The best a regulator can hope for is respect. It appears that our record at NCUA, as well as before and after, has been recognized as influential in a positive way. For that, I am truly honored and, frankly, a bit stunned.”

Dollar Associates is a full service credit union consulting firm with over 400 credit union clients and a number of firms that offer services to credit unions.

Dollar and his partner, Kirk Cuevas, an attorney who served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to the NCUA Chairman, reside in Birmingham.

Dollar and his wife, Janie, live in Hoover.