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Through harvest, branding, or all the ups and downs in-between.
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Mike Biernacki
Senior Agriculture Advisor
Brenda DeMille
Agriculture Advisor
Erin Drydyk
Agriculture Advisor
Aline Dupuis
Agriculture Advisor
Dallas Haldorson
Senior Agriculture Advisor
Chris Herrmann
Agriculture Business Development Manager
Turner McKay
Senior Agriculture Advisor
Ernie Shmyr
Agriculture Advisor
Lana Wiest
Agriculture Advisor
The local, neighbourly feel of a credit union is what Mike speaks to when addressing what it means to bank with us. “We are hands on, we’re out there visiting members and we’re living right in the same communities as them,” he says. “My VP and CEO are on my speed dial, and live within an hour of me, they aren’t someone I’ve never met before from Ontario.”
Starting right out of college where he obtained a Bachelors in Business Operations, Mike has now been in the financial industry for an impressive 17 years.
“Working at connectFirst, specifically the Drumheller branch, I can see that no one ever feels like they are ‘going to the branch to do their banking’, they are going in to visit Mike, or Roxanne, or whoever else they’ve built a connection with along the way. Everyone is on a first name basis here,” says Mike.
Having lived in Calgary, Saskatchewan, Montreal, Germany, and Poland, Mike now resides in Drumheller with his wife, two kids and dog. “I was 8 years old when I immigrated from Poland to Canada, believe it or not English is my 4th language,” Mike laughs.
Outside of work, Mike loves motor bikes. Whether it’s dirt bikes or road bikes he has them both and spends a lot of time riding. “The whole family has bikes, it’s a whole ordeal. We’ve also had no broken bones yet,” he jokes.
When it comes to financial success, Mike can’t stress enough that people need to save for the rainy days. “A lot of people get excited about making money quickly, and then they will go through it quickly too — that’s where they get into trouble, and we’re here to help steer them in a direction to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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“You get more of a ‘home atmosphere’ when you come into credit union. We know everybody by name. When members come in, you can have a conversation about them and their families. They feel comfortable being here.”
Brenda has been with connectFirst for 14 years. She started as a teller, then moved on to be a key part of our agriculture division where she does most of her lending through Drumheller, Hanna, Brooks and Bassano. Brenda even shined for a period of time as an Advisor on connectFirst business banking team within her time here.
Her dad was in the grain-buying business and it took her all over Saskatchewan and Alberta before she started her 30-year career in finance.
Community and family are Brenda’s driving purpose, and part of what drew her to connectFirst. “I always heard what a big happy family connectFirst was,” she says. “And connect was always great with volunteering and out in the community, helping different organizations. I liked that and kind of thought ‘maybe belonging to that would be good.’”
When Brenda meets with members from our communities, she goes out of her way to make them feel as comfortable as possible. “We're more personal with our members. We take more time to know who they are and we follow up with what they do afterwards,” she says about the credit union difference.
“You get more of a ‘home atmosphere’ when you come into credit union. We know everybody by name. When members come in, you can have a conversation about them and their families. They feel comfortable being here.”
Brenda shared that she recently ran into members at her local bottle depot, who she’d did financing for.
“We started talking, and he said ‘whoever would have thought that we’d stand in the line-up here and have a conversation with our banker, having ‘every-day’ talk,’” she says. “That’s exactly what it is – I want people to be comfortable with me and to be able to trust me.”
Outside of work, Brenda volunteers regularly and spends most of her time with her two grandkids, Parker, 10, and Maddie, 9.
“We just finished going to Medicine Hat Lodge a couple of weekends ago,” she says. “I always take them once a year to a hotel with a big water slide. We went down there for three days, and we had a lot of fun,” she says smiling.
Erin grew up in Grindrod B.C. on her parents dairy farm. “I grew up wanting to be a dairy farmer. It was my plan to take over my parent’s farm, but my dad would always tell me “you should become a banker instead” and I always thought he was crazy, but it’s funny because here I am now and I love it!” says Erin.
Currently Erin, her boyfriend, and dog, Sadie live in both Carbon and Oyen operating two different farms that they travel back and forth from. “Having a farming background, I find it easy to connect with my members and can relate to what they’re going through. It’s easy for me to have those conversations around the good years and the bad, the highs and the lows, because I live them too,” says Erin.
It’s important to Erin that her members know to never be afraid to ask for help or advice when they need it. “I know that sometimes there are years that are harder than others. This year was really tough on the ag community but I want my members to realize that we’re here to help understand their situation and find solutions to take some of that weight off their shoulders.”
Erin attended Lakeland college for a Diploma in Animal Science Technology and then transferred to Olds College for her degree in Agribusiness. “4-H was always a huge part of my growing up and I used to volunteer a lot with different shows within the Dairy Industry in B.C. and Alberta,” claims Erin.
In the summer, Erin likes to head back home to her parents property right along the river in Grindrod where her family will get together and go camping. “That’s one of my favourite spots in the world, when we’re there together,” she says. “Most of my free time is taken up with farming activities and helping out as much as I can, but lately I have really gotten into gardening and love to cook and bake,” says Erin. This year, she hopes to get a flower bed started as well.
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Aline understands that not everyone has the same needs when it comes to banking.
“Each and every member is unique and deserves individual attention,” she says. “Just because my members are in the Ag industry, doesn’t necessarily mean that they all have the same needs. Each operator runs their business differently or are at different stages of their lives. We need to find a plan that works best for them, individually.”
Having been in the financial industry for 15 years now, Aline has gained a wealth of knowledge. “I’ve had the opportunity to help a lot of people with their finances throughout the years. just knowing you had a hand in helping someone relieve some financial stress, purchase new land, a home or expand their business is so incredibly rewarding,” says Aline.
Based out of the Brooks branch, Aline has lived in Brooks for the past 36 years, and calls Brooks home. This is the same community she and her husband work in and the community they chose to raise a family in.
Outside of work, Aline enjoys spending time with her family and friends and loves any chance that she gets to be outdoors, in the heat of the sun. “I like to do yardwork in the summer. It’s always nice to have a freshly mowed lawn because it gives you a sense of accomplishment,” she laughs.
Aline takes pride in working at connectFirst and loves the passion we bring to helping our members and the communities that surround us. “At some point in everyone’s lives, whether it’s personal or business related, people need some advice when it comes to finances. I think as a credit union, we truly believe in people and we’re here to help them get to wherever it is they want to be.”
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Born and raised on a farm outside of Rosemary, Alberta, Dallas grew up helping out with his parent’s excavation company and their small cattle operation. After high school, he attended university for a couple years and then worked in construction and the oil & gas industry before beginning his career in finance. Dallas now lives in Innisfail with his wife, two daughters and two dogs.
In Innisfail, Dallas is heavily involved in the minor football community. “I served as the president of Innisfail Minor Football for a few years and now I coach the peewee team, so that takes up a lot of my time especially in the fall,” he says. “I also play guitar, do some target shooting, and keep busy by taking my kids to sports and other extracurricular activities.”
Dallas has been in the financial industry for 17 years, which started after he read a book by David Bach called The Latte Factor. “He talked about simple savings plans and other things along those lines, but he also talked about his life and about how being a financial planner was able to help people achieve financial goals and set them up for financial success. It really struck me as a rewarding career path and something I wanted to be a part of,” says Dallas.
“I felt like the agriculture sector of finance was a good fit for me personally. I really love working with my ag clients,” Dallas claims after working at connectFirst for a year and a half now.
Having worked at other financial institutions, Dallas shows great pride in the credit union difference. “When you get into some of the larger financial institutions, they try to fit their customers into a box with their policies and procedures. connectFirst is much more agile in crafting deals and making financing work for individual members and their unique situations,” he says.
“One of the cornerstone values at connectFirst is ‘Act Local’ and we really live that. In some of the smaller rural towns, there is only one financial institution, and that’s us. It’s where everyone goes, and it feels like they belong. Everyone is really part of the community when they bank with us.”
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Medicine Hat is where Chris has called home his entire life. “I grew up on a farm north of town, moved to Vulcan for a short time for work, and then came back to Medicine Hat, so I feel like I never really left,” says Chris.
Here he lives with his wife, three kids and their Golden Doodle, Moose.
Chris stays busy with many extracurriculars from refereeing volleyball to leading the Medicine Hat Multi 4-H club. “I’m also part of the Gas City Kawanis Club here in town which is a service club that focuses on youth in the community,” says Chris.
You can also be confident knowing that Chris will have the latest Toronto Maple Leafs news and updates, being a die-hard fan of theirs. “Growing up on the farm we didn’t have cable or a satellite dish, all we had was an old antenna. We’d get CBC and the Maple Leafs were always the team who played early in the evening and by the time the Flames or Oilers played, it was my bed time. I think that’s where my Maple Leafs fandom comes from,” laughs Chris.
It was 10 years ago now that Chris began his career in Agriculture banking, 4 and a half of those being with connectFirst when he had the opportunity to help get the new Chinook Financial branch — one of connectFirst’s legacy brands, up and running in Medicine Hat.
“Being a part of building a new branch is a really unique opportunity that not everyone would get the chance to be a part of, so when connectFirst decided to open a branch in Medicine hat, it just made sense for me to try out the opportunity,” states Chris. “It’s been a really good experience to be able to start from the ground up and watch the momentum in the community grow.”
Working and living in the same community as his clients is something Chris takes pride in. “I’m right next door to our members. Our kids or grandkids play sports together,” he says.
“I always try and make my clients feel comfortable when they meet with me. I want to build a relationship where they have full trust in me because from there I know I’ll be able to give better advice, and my advice is better received.”
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Having started in accounting back in 2017, Turner has always had a career working with numbers but has since switched over to a role as an Agriculture Advisor in his home town of Vulcan. “When I got asked to join the credit union by my account manager here at the time I was thrilled. I love what I do, being able to work in the agriculture industry on the finance side,” he says. “It allows me to utilize my education that I worked so hard to obtain and still work in an industry that I grew up with and am so passionate about.”
Turner studied at Queens University at the Smith School of Business and received a bachelors of commerce with a specialization in accounting. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree, he took a graduate degree in accounting and is now in the midst of applying for his final CPA designation.
Being able to think outside the box and break down complex financial decisions into bite sized pieces is what Turner excels at in his role today. “I’m able to make the connection between complex financial transactions and taxation issues that arise on a farm or ag operation and explain it in a simple way for someone who may not quite understand it fully,” claims Turner. “Being able to build trust with my clients so that I can convey that sort of information is very important to me.”
Outside his role at connectFirst, Turner lives a busy and adventurous life. “I’ve been very lucky in my life to travel quite a bit. I’ve lived and explored places like Montreal, Toronto, Kingston and even Glasgow in Scotland,” he says.
At home, he spends time with his dog and two cats while staying busy working on his family farm — a 4000 acre cash crop outside of Vulcan. During the winter months things don’t slow down for Turner, as he and his dad spend most of their time running a metal art business making yard signs and more. “I also play guitar and the bagpipes and love to read and cook in my free time,” he states.
For Turner, one bit of good advice he likes to provide to clients is that “It’s just as important to be smart in a good year of business as it is to tighten your purse strings in a bad year”, and we know that advice has helped many.
Ernie was born and raised on a mixed operation farm of grain and cattle in the Peace Country of Northern Alberta.
After moving around the province for a while, the opportunity arose to work at the connectFirst branch in the City of Brooks and almost 20 years later, he’s still here — a smiling face for all of his clients.
“I’ve been in the financial industry for over 40 years. I’ve seen the interest rate spikes of the 80s, the many recessions, and all of the other changes we’ve had to go through,” says Ernie. “I talk to some of our long-time members and the thing they all go back to is that when times were tough, the credit union was always there for them. We have always been there with compassion and understanding and that’s what appeals the most to me about where I work.”
Ernie is most passionate about the fact that we have our member’s backs through the good and the bad times. “There’s an old joke I remember from years ago about bankers that sticks with me. It’s that they will give you an umbrella when the sun is shining, but as soon as it starts to rain they’ll want their umbrella back… and I know that doesn’t hold true for our credit union. It’s the biggest difference we have,” he says.
Outside of his role as an Agriculture Advisor, Ernie keeps himself busy by hanging out at home by Newell Lake outside of Brooks with his cat and the other friendly community members that live near-by.
Refereeing hockey has always been another huge part of Ernie’s life. For many years, he has refereed games involving international teams from Russia, Denmark and Australia, and was also on the ice for a few exhibition games for the Women’s Olympic team. Today, you can still find Ernie at the rink working as an off-ice official for the National Junior A championship Brooks Bandits hockey team.
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Lana is a huge proponent of credit unions. “When we move a file, they aren’t going off to Toronto or somewhere like that. Everyone’s business decisions stay right here in Alberta, and a lot of the time being looked at by someone who could live just down the street from them. Credit unions are it,” claims Lana.
Lana has been with connectFirst for the entirety of her financial career, which is now an impressive 22 years. “I’ve had a few different roles here but I started on the agriculture lending side of things about 4 years ago and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” she says. Lana also played a huge role in bringing forth the young leaders programs at Chinook Financial, one of connectFirst’s legacy brands.
Lana and her Husband keep busy on their farm in Enchant, watching their kids play hockey, visiting their grandkids, or tending to their cattle.
Running a mixed operation themselves, clients can trust that Lana understands the highs and lows of life in agriculture. “I understand everything our members are going through when it comes to the good years and bad years, because we struggle with the same things at our operation,” says Lana.
Building a strong relationship with her clients is something very important to Lana. “If we truly understand your goals, we will be in a much better position to help you achieve them, and having that strong relationship is the first step in getting that full picture of what success means to you.”
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