Episode Details

“You need an inner strength, but you also need somebody there when moments get tough.” – Peter Rice

Welcome to episode 243 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Zealyst.

This episode is sponsored by Trellance. Trellance is a leading technology partner for credit unions, delivering innovative technology solutions to help credit unions achieve more. With a comprehensive suite of analytics, cloud and talent solutions, the Trellance team ensures credit unions increase efficiency, manage risk, and improve member experience. Learn more at Trellance.com!

In this new 2026 season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

For this episode, we are joined by Peter Rice, CEO at Hanscom Federal Credit Union. Jill and I recently returned from walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and our experience on the trail got us thinking about what a long walk can teach us about purpose, resilience, leadership, and simply being human. Peter has walked the Camino five times and is already planning a sixth time. For him, the Camino became part of his life during one of its most difficult chapters. After his wife Marie was diagnosed with terminal cancer and later passed away, Peter made the extraordinary decision to walk the Camino with his two young sons. What began as a way to honor a promise became a tradition that has shaped his family, his understanding of leadership, and ultimately his path into the credit union movement!

We talk with Peter about some of the key moments on the trail that changed him, including a particularly painful experience with his son Sam which he later revisited a decade later under completely different circumstances. We explore what happens when the trail strips away titles, technology, schedules, and everything we think that we need, leaving us with little more than our purpose and the next step in front of us.

Peter also reflects on how the Camino influenced his approach to leadership: when to push, when to stop, how to support someone without taking away their agency, and why leaders need to have difficult conversations before frustration becomes actual conflict. He opens up about vulnerability, grief, family, love, failure, and the lessons he learned while walking alongside his colleagues, and, along the way, we discover some surprising connections between the cooperative spirit of the Camino and the credit union movement, and we consider what it really means to lead with purpose when the path ahead isn't always clear. We hope that you enjoy this inspirational and insightful conversation with Peter Rice!

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Books mentioned on The CUInsight Experience podcast: Book List

Connect with Peter:
Peter Rice, C.E.O. at Hanscom Federal Credit Union
hfcu.org
Peter: LinkedIn
Hanscom Federal Credit Union: LinkedIn | Facebook |