Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Stephanie Sherrod, President and CEO of TDECU, your credit union, but more important you’re University of Houston football stadium; Stephanie, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Stephanie: Thanks for having me Leisa.

Leisa: I mean that’s pretty exciting, I’m not going to dive right into the football stadium but tell us about TDECU.

Stephanie: Yes, well we’re a financial cooperative and we’re celebrating our 60th year this year. We were started by 10 people who got together with $5.00 each, started the credit union with 50 bucks and with that they made their first loan for $35.00 – it was for a refrigerator – and we’ve used those same principles of helping each other through our financial needs today that we did 60 years ago.

Leisa: And I understand it’s local, where was the company founded?

Stephanie: Yes, well we were started in Lake Jackson, Texas and today we serve members, 210,000 of them, from Houston down through Victoria.

Leisa: And if you can tell me briefly, what’s the difference between a credit union and a bank?

Stephanie: Well, we’re owned by our members. They’re our shareholders and in a cooperative we give back the excess income that we have to them in the form of dividends and loan rates and special services.

Leisa: Sounds good to me.

Stephanie: It’s great.

Leisa: Thank you for being here.

Stephanie: Thanks for having me.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at ContentActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.