Ever since he was in college, Brandon Michaels has dreamed of becoming the CEO of a credit union. The 31-year-old just never imagined it would happen so soon.

At the beginning of 2012, he was handed the reins to Mazuma Credit Union in Kansas City.

He was the company’s vice president when he received the news late last year.

“I thought there was no chance in hell they were going to take a young whippersnapper and put him in the CEO chair,” said Michaels, who lives in Overland Park. “But they saw things in me others didn’t have. Even though they did a national search, they realized what they wanted was right inside the building.”

Credit unions run in the family. Michaels, who is a San Francisco area native, said his mom was the CEO of a credit union near his hometown, and so was his grandmother.

“As a kid, they put me on the less sexy projects, like cleaning out the storage room, because no one else would do it,” he said. “I thought working at a credit union was the most boring job in my life.”

But when he got to college, Michaels discovered finance was his passion. When he graduated, he took a job with the FDIC. From there, he went on to become the CFO of various credit unions in California before coming to Mazuma in 2009.

He rose to the top much more quickly than his grandmother had several decades ago by working her way up the ladder.

“The world is changing, and the days of someone working their way up from bank teller to CEO are in the past,” Michaels said. “Now, it’s not about what age you are. It’s about whether you are the most qualified person to bring forth changing dynamics in the workplace.”

Michaels said he hopes he can make his mother and grandmother proud. After all, he said, he had the best teachers for the job.

“I love being able to cast a vision forward and thinking of ideas that will affect thousands of people in a positive way,” he said. “It’s rewarding.”