At the tender age of 39, Tamara Vrooman had everything a career-minded woman could want.

In addition to living in picturesque Victoria with her husband and young son, Vrooman had reached a career pinnacle in public service as British Columbia’s deputy minister of finance and secretary to Treasury Board.

So, why, after three years in the senior government posts, did she chuck a great job and accept an offer to become CEO of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, and leave Victoria to move her family across the Georgia Strait to Vancouver?

It’s simple, Vrooman says: it was too good to pass up.

When she takes the helm Sept. 1 — she replaces Dave Mowat, who served as Vancity’s CEO for seven years and recently joined ATB Financial in Alberta as its president and CEO — Vrooman will head Canada’s largest credit union, with its $12.3 billion in assets, more than 363,000 members and 57 branches throughout Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Squamish and Victoria. Vancity also owns Citizens Bank of Canada, a national financial institution that serves members via telephone, ATMs and the Internet.

But as large as Vancity’s numbers are, they are nothing like the numbers Vrooman was dealing with as deputy finance minister in a provincial government whose most recent annual budget topped $37 billion.

Nor, she says, was the jump from government to the financial services sector all that daunting because both sectors contain a substantial element of public service. “It certainly wasn’t a slam-dunk decision to make the change,” she says. “But being deputy minister of finance and running a credit union do have a lot in common.”

The link, she says, is a business model called the “triple bottom line” that, in addition to emphasizing financial success, also mandates environmental and social or community sustainability.

“I’m very committed to public service,” she adds. “What we do in the finance ministry is try to manage taxpayer dollars to the best of our ability. But we also have to keep in mind the needs of the province and the needs of the community. And this is what Vancity does, and it does it very well. It’s completely aligned with what I like to do, and the great draw to Vancity is its focus on the triple bottom line that balances the community, the environment and prosperity.”

Vrooman admires the way Vancity and credit unions in general go about their business, and the admiration is mutual. Vancity knows that hiring Vrooman is a big gain for itself and a major loss for the provincial government.

In the B.C. legislature, Vrooman earned a great deal of respect from both the governing Liberal and Opposition NDP ranks, and the Victoria press gallery.

“It’s never easy to leave a good job like deputy finance minister,” she adds. “And I’m particularly proud of the work this department has done recently. For the first time in more than 20 years, British Columbia has a triple-A credit rating. And I’m leaving with the B.C. economy doing very well.”

Vrooman also had a strong working relationship with Finance Minister Carole Taylor. The two engineered a number of innovations, such as the government’s successful collective bargaining strategy in 2006, for which the finance ministry offered incentives such as signing bonuses for the public-sector unions if they reached contract settlements by designated deadlines.

Before becoming deputy finance minister, Vrooman served as deputy minister of health, assistant deputy minister of corporate services and financial accountability, and executive director of funding planning and evaluation. Further back, she managed Treasury Board staff and worked as a Treasury Board analyst.

Vrooman’s public-service career also netted her a number of awards. She was a 2007 recipient of the Knowledge and Leadership PEAK Award from the Association of Women in Finance, and in 2005 was given Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award by Caldwell Partners International. She also received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 2003.

When Vancity successfully recruited Vrooman, it was a political victory as well because the credit union’s chairwoman, Patrice Pratt, is former president of B.C.’s New Democratic Party.

“We are delighted to have found someone with the inspirational leadership qualities, financial and business smarts, and deep-rooted values that Tamara Vrooman embodies,” says Pratt. “We conducted a robust international search and are especially pleased that we found a homegrown leader. We searched for a senior executive who has a passion for delivering a triple bottom-line mandate. We believe Tamara will move us even further along these paths.”

@page_break@As for Vrooman’s vision of where she’ll take Vancity, the CEO-in-waiting wasn’t in a position to say a great deal when interviewed shortly after the July 9 announcement. “I haven’t spent a lot of time with the board or executive,” she says. “But Vancity is looking to maintain its leadership position in the industry as an innovative financial institution. That’s the main task, as I see it.

“I also like what it is doing in terms of some of its product lines,” she adds. “Frankly, to lead an organization like this and make a contribution to the community is something I couldn’t pass up.”

Vancity brings Vrooman back in contact with a co-operative, something near and dear to her heart. While doing her master of arts degree in history at the University of Victoria, one of her major papers was on the rise of co-operatives and women’s role in the agrarian movement in Western Canada.

This summer, Vrooman, husband Gregg Burkinshaw and their three-and-a-half-year-old son, Anthony, will set up house in Van-couver’s Kitsilano area, close to the water. Vancity’s new CEO loves sailing. She also has a “strong love” of music and plays string bass, piano and flute.

“The real delight of our lives is our son,” she says. “Whenever work gets too stressful or your head gets too big, you can count on a three-year-old to bring you down to earth.” IE