Mr. Alan F Hignett BA Social Policy and Social Work; DipCS; DipSW. Plas.

Cub Board Secretary, Secretary of HEY Credit Union. Vice President, ABCUL (Association of British Credit Unions Ltd)

Alan has been involved with credit unions for 40 years. Since retiring from front line social work (22 years) he has given more time to give to helping people. Being involved with CUB is a natural step forward for the credit union community, as it is working together for the benefit of each other and all our members.

Mike is dedicated to the not-for-profit money sector with experience ranging from Money Advice, Financial Education and Credit Unions. Following a career in industry he has focussed on the non-profit money sector for over 25 years. He has worked in local government as a Financial Inclusion Manager, as a regional Financial Inclusion Fund manager and has served on the board of the Institute of Money Advisers. For the past 18 years has worked specifically in Credit Unions. He is currently the CEO of First Rate Credit Union and has driven growth to double its size over the past 5 years.

This has ranged from front-line advice work with indebted individuals through to project management of multi-million-pound strategic regional money advice projects.

Have experience both in the third sector and in local government at operational, policy and strategic levels and latterly working on wider financial inclusion issues including the delivery of financial services in low-income communities.

Specialties: Debt & Money Advice, Credit Unions, Financial Inclusion, financial services.
Business Development, Partnership development and management,
Project Management

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

Richard has been a member of Commsave since our credit union was founded in 1991, and has been a volunteer director/supervisor for over 30 years. He has served terms as Chairman of the Supervisory Committee, Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman of our Board. In addition to his volunteer duties, Commsave has employed him as an Executive Director supporting the Board on governance, policy, board/director development, and external relations. He was elected to represent the East Midland region as volunteer director on the national trade body the Association of British Credit Unions Ltd (Abcul) where he served for six years.

He has been recognised as an International Credit Union Development Educator.
In 2024, the national trade body recognised him as one of six credit union pioneers across Great Britian.