February 10, 2011, Toronto - Assiniboine Credit Union is the recipient of the inaugural Brown Governance Co-operative Award for Boardroom Culture. The award was created by the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) and Brown Governance Inc. to recognize that a healthy boardroom culture is critical to governance success.

Debra Brown, president and CEO of Brown Governance Inc. presents Garry Loewen, Chair of ACU’s Board of Directors with the inaugural Brown Governance Co-operative Award for Boardroom Culture.

ACU was recognized for its proactive approach to board governance in the face of a significant change in culture, resulting from its 2007 merger between not two but three credit unions with very different backgrounds. The newly merged Assiniboine Credit Union set the tone for boardroom and governance culture through a process of meaningful consultation and dialogue, attention to relationships, shared planning, building consensus and engaging third-party expertise.

Garry Loewen, chair of ACU’s Board of Directors accepted the award on behalf of the board at CCA’s Institute of Co-operative Leadership in Toronto. “We’re honoured to be the first recipient of this award,” Loewen said. “It validates our hard work to build a new and positive culture post-merger. Boardroom culture goes beyond a board’s structure and considers how board members interact with one another and with management. In essence, boardroom culture is a set of unwritten, often unspoken norms underlying governance power structures.”

In presenting the award to ACU, Debra L. Brown, President and CEO of Brown Governance Inc. said “Culture can be an enabler of governance effectiveness, or a barrier to it. We decided to seek out and honour those brave souls who had invested the time and risk of identifying their boardroom culture, and then took active steps to make sure that this culture enables governance success, not blocks or detracts from it.”

Since 1991, Brown Governance Inc. has worked with boards in the private, public, co-operative and not-for-profit sectors.

The Canadian Co-operative Association promotes, develops and works to unite co-operatives and credit unions for the benefit of people in Canada and around the world.