Meet Our Team

Get to know the team behind CUltivate and how they came together

Chris Olson

Founder
2019 - Current

Chris got into the Credit Union industry in 2014 and hasn’t looked back. Coming from Corporate America the Credit Union world was a breath of fresh air and something he did not know existed. Being hand selected to CRASH the Iowa Credit Union League Convention only a few short months after he joined the movement changed his career and his life. Coming back as a CRASH Mentor the following year developed his skillset as a leader, a networker, a mentor, and a person who wanted to help people. Chris soon transitioned jobs as he took an executive level position where he was the youngest executive in the entire company. Today he gets to work with many Credit Unions and Leagues across the United States, has presented at many State Leagues, mentored young professionals, won awards within the industry, spoke at a wide range of conferences, and most of all expanded the YP Movement as a founder of CUltivate.

Aubrey Ward

Founder
2019 - Current

Aubrey started her career in the Credit Union industry in 2006. After taking a brief break from the industry in 2010, she realized how much she missed it and started at a CUSO owned by the Iowa Credit Union League in 2012. During her time there, she was able to soak in many Credit Union Advocacy and development speakers, which drove her love for the industry even more. She CRASHed the CU Direct conference in 2018 and was selected to be part of the 2018 Filene i3 group. She is #CUobsessed and wants to involve more people in crashing and staying involved with the all of the opportunities in the credit union industry.

Follow Aubrey

Twitter: Aubs28

Marcus Murphy

Founder
2019 - 2020

As an assistant Branch Manager at one of the largest Credit Unions in Iowa, Marcus Murphy is eager to spread the word of the People Helping People philosophy. Through his countless volunteering events and being President of a Community Action Committee he strives to make others life’s better. After being selected to CRASH the Iowa Credit Union League’s annual conference. He has attended many Emerging leaders roundtables, and many other leadership events. He wants to use all the information he learns and share it with others!

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Instagram:

Meet the Team: Team

CUltivate is something we are all extremely passionate about, we planned and mapped out what we wanted to accomplish for almost three years. After seeing and living in the industry we noticed how many young professionals were putting in the extra work to get noticed and really changing the industry, we knew this had to be spotlighted. We believe in equality, we all share the same title as Founder, we fully understand our generation is the future of the workforce, and it is our mission to shine light on young professionals doing big things while creating peer to peer learning and a safe space where young professionals can develop skills, be vulnerable, and above all, know that we are all in this together. We are the future and we are all here to support one another.

Meet the Team: Text