By Mark Emmons
Our “5 Minutes With” profile series highlights business thought leaders, the market trends they see, and the work their organizations are doing. And their hot takes on pizza integrations, too.
When Tom Barkley says there’s so much to learn when you embrace change, he’s not kidding. Even though he grew up in small-town Wisconsin with only a sliver of Irish ancestry in his family tree, Barkley went on an adventure by studying at Trinity College Dublin.
“It was such a great experience that impacted how I looked at learning and my outlook on life,” Barkley said. “It made me realize how change can make your life better, but you have to learn how to handle it.”
He brought that same philosophy to his career. After starting as a bank branch lending manager, he shifted toward technology, teaching himself to code and rising to Vice President of Solutions Architecture and Development at TruStone Financial, a credit union based in Minnesota and Wisconsin. That varied experience gives him a unique perspective in understanding the challenges facing the business and how new technologies can help solve them.
“I see myself as a bridge spanning the gap between the two sides,” Barkley said. “I’m always asking questions about what the business needs. Then I’m taking that to potential partners to assess the value proposition of their technology so we can make good, informed decisions.”
Barkley talked recently about the fast-evolving financial services industry, why integration is foundational for digital modernization efforts, and how a history degree helps him in his technology role. Here are some lightly edited portions of our conversation.
Tell us a little bit about TruStone.
Tom Barkley: What makes credit unions different from other financial institutions is we’re here to serve our members and to help people. We were founded by our members and exist to help them with their financial needs. I love that cooperative focus, and it’s why I’ve stayed with the organization for 12 years. TruStone has allowed me to grow into who I am. I started as a banker, held jobs throughout the organization, and learned new things. I wouldn’t have believed it if you had told me I would end up on the tech side when I started with TruStone.
How would you explain your role to a neighbor?
Tom Barkley: My fiancée always asks me what I do, and I still don’t think she’s satisfied with what I tell her. I think it’s confusing for a lot of people. But in the simplest terms, it’s looking at how our systems work together and making them talk better. I also try to understand the banking environment, see the business needs, and learn what’s possible with technology. I try to build great connections within the business to understand their problems. Then I’m kind of a scout for vendors and partners who might be able to help us.
Can you expand on that idea of being a “scout?”
Tom Barkley: A big chunk of my time is going to conferences. I’m looking for solutions that meet a need or partners who can deliver a solution to a need that I didn’t realize we had. I love talking to all kinds of vendors and understanding problems that maybe we haven’t thought of as an institution. That leads to rethinking how we do things and saying, “Maybe there’s a better way to do it.” You have to be willing to consider that there could be a paradigm-shifting way to do something.
How are credit unions staying relevant when there’s so much disruption throughout financial services?
Tom Barkley: Traditionally, credit unions have grown out of loyalty and commitment to providing good service and products to our members. For a long time, the competition was banks. But the game has changed in the last five years with fintech disruptors like SoFi, Chime, Robinhood, and even Apple. People like me are working to change the mindset and explain that it’s not enough anymore to say we help people, not Wall Street. That’s important, but we also have to offer the digital experience that people want.
How does integration play into this?
Tom Barkley: It allows us to control how our data moves and how our business operates. The biggest thing we struggle with is legacy vendors in the credit union space that say no. Often, a product might not work well with other systems. It might integrate with a small list of apps and doesn’t allow us to move quickly. Our big focus is modernizing our architecture, and an integration platform is a key part of that. We want to work with API-first partners and anyone with great new products. Integration is about who we can partner with and how we can leverage the partnerships we already have better.
What is Boomi’s role at TruStone?
Tom Barkley: Boomi integration is more about automation for us because it’s opening up our systems, taking what was a batch architecture, and making it more event-driven. Most banks and credit unions run on a tech stack older than you might ever want to know.
Our goal with Boomi is to automate processes, make them more reusable, then open them up to APIs so that we can bring in more advanced-thinking vendors. It’s hard to find partners when you have an old tech stack and can’t move with speed. We might have some older tech and want to replace it. With Boomi, we can replace it in small pieces. We don’t have to do big, rip-and-replace. If we want to work with somebody offering a brand-new service, we can put a nice shiny layer on top of our old tech so they can plug in and play together. We can provide the integration into our systems to get the ball moving and get that product out the door.
How does a history education help in your day-to-day job?
Tom Barkley: It’s about a thirst for knowledge and the ability to start with nothing and figure it out. It’s helped me in development by being comfortable knowing that I don’t know something, where I’m going to start, or where I’ll end up. But I know I have to follow the clues to get an answer. It gives you an open mindset where you understand you’ve got to go down some rabbit holes while also knowing when to stop wasting time going down those rabbit holes. I learned to balance being curious enough to figure things out but not too curious and knowing when to stop.
We saved our best question for last. Do you have a favorite pizza integration?
Tom Barkley: I’m not very good at working with dough in the kitchen because I’m not great at following recipes. I do things more ad hoc. But I’ve found that I can make Detroit-style pizza pretty well. It’s basically a deep-fried pizza in a metal pan. It’s almost like a brioche crust that’s kind of crunchy. That’s the base, and I figure out what to change on it. The other day I tried Sichuan peppercorns, a cool little addition with a nice numbing flavor. It makes a world of difference in pasta sauce.
Up Close With Tom Barkley
Home: Minneapolis, Minn.
Family: Fiancée, Jill
Education: Master’s degree in history from Trinity College Dublin
Career: His entire career has been in financial services, mainly at TruStone
Cool Thing About Tom: He takes full advantage of living two blocks from a co-op grocery store. “Cooking is kind of my Zen place. When I get home, and it’s been a stressful day, if I can cook something, it calms me down.”
Learn more about how TruStone Financial is using the Boomi platform in our Boomi + TruStone case study.