Synergent’s mission is to ‘help credit unions succeed and improve the financial lives of their members.’ In our monthly Employee Spotlight series, we feature one of our dedicated staff members to help you get to know the people who are working as an extension of your credit union team.
Bill Ashland
Bill Ashland, Assistant Vice President of Business Continuity for Synergent, has been a pivotal member of the Synergent team for over 14 years. His expertise in Business Continuity Planning is highly sought after by both our credit union partners and the industry at large.
“Business Continuity Planning is not rocket science, nor does it take immense budgets and mountains of time,” stated Ashland. “It’s simply the process of asking ‘What if…?’ questions and making plans and preparations to address them.”
Journey from Y2K Project to Leadership in Business Continuity
Ashland’s journey in business continuity began over 26 years ago. While working in financial services in the late 1990s, he was assigned to represent his department for the Y2K Project, a massive effort to prevent fallout from the programming of dates in two-digit format in the early days of the computing industry to save limited coding space, making the year 2000 potentially be interpreted as the year 1900. There was fear that this could crash computer systems throughout the world. His work was a success, and he was invited to join his department’s larger business continuity team. In May 2011, he made his way to Synergent when he was hired as a BCP Coordinator and has since worked his way up the ranks to his current role as Assistant Vice President of Business Continuity. He considered the influences that made him interested in this type of work and what keeps him focused on it.
“During the Ice Storm of 1998, we lost power for 11 days (with a six-week-old baby at home),” remembered Ashland. “That was my first real-world experience with continuity planning at the family level. On September 11, 2001, we all watched the world change. That, plus seeing that the work I did on the Y2K project and in my early Business Continuity Planning efforts made a definitive impact… I turned what began as an assignment into a passion. Bringing BCP expertise and experience to our credit unions and making the process easier and more understandable fills a definite need and getting to work closely with so many people and teams both internally and with the credit unions is very rewarding.”
Ensuring Credit Union Resilience
There are very few typical days in Ashland’s role. Whether he is conducting a credit union Business Continuity Planning session in-person or remotely, reviewing vendor management due diligence, completing research and threat monitoring, or creating internal documentation, any of these plans can be thrown out at a moment’s notice because of an unanticipated incident or event occurrence. Whether working internally or externally, the work Ashland does benefits everyone.
“The Business Continuity efforts we take internally help ensure that the services we provide to credit unions will be resilient and recoverable if a disaster event ever were to impact Synergent,” explained Ashland. “The Business Continuity Planning for Credit Unions program directly helps participating credit unions with their own resilience and recovery efforts. Knowing what to do when bad things happen reduces panic and empowers the response process. A few years into my time at Synergent, a credit union reached out to ask for help with their Business Continuity Plan, followed by another a few months later, highlighting a clear need for this service offering in our credit union community. A year later, the Business Continuity Planning for Credit Unions program became official, with 12 credit unions joining at the start. It has grown every year since, with nearly 40 in the program currently, and my role has morphed (and moved) into the consulting arena.”
When reflecting on his career, one highlight stands out to Ashland, particularly because his rigorous business continuity planning was put into practice at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a time no one could have predicted but Ashland ensured our organization was well-prepared for.
“The groundwork we laid organizationally in the years leading up to 2020—deploying virtual desktops, empowering and extensively testing remote work so that virtually all staff were comfortable with it and had ongoing experience with it, cloud computing, digital collaboration tools, and more—positioned us such that when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and disrupted the entire world, we had the capabilities and experience to respond quickly and effectively to protect staff while providing uninterrupted service to credit unions,” reflected Ashland.
Passion for Synergent, Cybersecurity, and Life on the Road
While he loves his role and the work he does with credit unions, he also specifically enjoys working at Synergent.
“There are very real and tangible reasons why Synergent is a great place to work: the talented and caring teammates I have the privilege of knowing and working with here, the serviced-focused mission to our credit unions, and the credit union movement as a whole – and I love what I do here,” shared Ashland. “I’m happy to ask, ‘How can I help?’”
With October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Ashland provided insight into how he helps credit unions with cybersecurity preparedness.
“During Tabletop Exercises with Business Continuity Planning for Credit Union program participants, we always start off with a discussion about risks/threats that are top of mind with each credit union,” said Ashland. “Cybersecurity is almost always at or near the top of the list. It’s the one threat for which the target is always moving. No matter how much we prepare, train, and test, the threat continues to grow because the bad actors and their technology are always improving. Adding the specter of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the mix will increase that threat exponentially. Continual effort and non-stop vigilance are paramount to reducing the all-too-real risk.”
Outside of work, Ashland enjoys exploring the country as a full-time RVer and providing music for events as a deejay.
“After more than 60 years of Maine winters, and with retirement on the horizon, we made the leap to dodge winter for the next few years and explore all of the wonders our country has to offer. Last year, our travels took us to 16 states from October to May, and in a few weeks (after spending the summer in Maine), we hit the road again. If you attended the recent Connect Conference, you may have seen another long-time passion of mine in action: music. I’ve been a deejay since high school, although now I only am doing the occasional event for fun or when asked.”