When disaster strikes: The lessons learned from 9/11
On the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, credit union leaders reflect on business continuity and disaster recovery.
The 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks serves as a grim but necessary reminder that disaster can come without warning.
CUES member Steve Bugg, president/CEO of $1 billion Great Lakes Credit Union in Bannockburn, Illinois, learned this lesson firsthand.
In the fall of 2001, he had a leadership position with Sprint PCS in New York. On Sep. 11, he made his usual commute from his home in New Jersey to the company’s offices in the Wall Street Journal Building in Times Square, less than five miles from the World Trade Center. He remembers commenting to his wife, as he entered the Lincoln Tunnel, how brightly the sun was shining and reflecting off the Twin Towers.
“It was an unusually picture-perfect day in New York City, with totally blue skies, which does not come often,” he recalls. “Little did I know that in less than a few hours my life, as well as everyone else’s, would change forever.”
continue reading »