Az Business and AZRE magazines announced the publications’ lists of the Most Influential Women in Arizona of 2023, including Amy Hysell, president & CEO at Arizona Financial Credit Union. In celebration of the 12th anniversary of the Most Influential Women program, azbigmedia.com is profiling one of the Most Influential Women of 2023 each day leading up to the Most Influential Women of 2023 dinner and reception.
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The Most Influential Women for 2023 will be honored at a reception on Thursday, August 17 at Chateau Luxe in Phoenix. For sponsorship information, email Amy.Lindsey@azbigmedia.com. For information about the event honoring the Most Influential Women, email Lynette.Carrington@azbigmedia.com or click here. To buy tickets, click here.
Amy Hysell, Arizona Financial Credit Union
BACKGROUND: On January 1, 2023, Amy Hysell took over the role of president and chief executive officer of Arizona Financial from Ronald Westad, who served in the role for more than 26 years.
CAREER PATH INSPIRATION: “What inspired me to follow my present career path was an interesting journey. I was going to school to be a corporate attorney and had to work to put myself through college and I ended up landing a job at a small credit union in Indiana. Within three months I changed my major. I just fell in love with the industry — where we can do the right things for the right reasons. It’s a not-for-profit financial cooperative model, so our profits go back to our members. We don’t have shareholders; we just get to serve our members and that’s why my whole career has been in credit unions.”
SOURCE OF PRIDE: “I can’t name one, but I’ll just say it’s a journey and being able to mentor individuals and see them grow brings me the most joy and feeling of accomplishment when I can contribute to someone else’s success. I think the other part of that is being emotionally intelligent, really trying to understand what people need to be successful, versus what I need to be successful. Once I really learned that in leadership, things changed for me. I’ve enjoyed mentoring others and helping others grow.”
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION: “That is so easy For me — it’s Ron Westad. He is the prior CEO of where I am now. I’ve had the privilege of working with him for nearly 30 years. A principally-centered leader does the right things for the right reasons, is fully transparent in what he does, and again, has a very high emotional intelligence. Being able to work side by side with somebody like that for that long has been the best part of my career and journey.”
SURPRISING FACT: “A little-known fact about me: I am in love with pickles — dill pickles. From the time I was a child, my favorite thing was Polish dill pickles. I would eat the whole jar and drink pickle juice. It’s a terrible habit and I still do it today. My nickname as a kid was even Pickle Puss!”
