Credit union executive from Mesa a Lego master
May 6—Jason Paprocki knows how to build brick-by-brick, whether his career or Legos.
The 47-year-old started with Arizona Federal Credit Union in 1992 when he graduated from Mesa High and this December, the executive vice president and chief operating officer will mark 30 years with the company that gave him his start.
When he's not reinvesting into the Arizona Federal's membership, he's investing his own time and money into his own Lego creations.
He said it became a wintertime hobby as a kid in Minnesota, but on a trip to Legoland for his daughter, he found something missing in the city landscapes.
Legoland California park features city landscapes modeled after major metropolises around the country but Paprocki noticed that none featured any sports stadiums. So, he took it on as a project "to prove that I could."
He embarked on a three-year journey to build a 64-square-foot replica of Wrigley Field in Chicago, complete with rooftop bleachers across the street.
"It was a fun project to work on with my daughter. From there, she and I had built a number of things as she grew up."
He said he built a full-size Minion from the movie "Despicable Me," as well as a replica model of the apartment set from the sitcom Seinfeld.
Paprocki's staff even asked him to build a replica model of an Arizona Federal branch a couple years ago.
"It started as a fun hobby with my daughter and ended up being a good opportunity just to take my mind off things and relieve stress," he said.
He said he doesn't follow any instructions or software of any kind and he just uses photos of the project and starts to work on an 8'x8' table in his home.
"I typically pick one element to build first that sets the scale, and then I build around it," he said.
The hardest part for him remains taking them apart and keeping them organized by color, shape and size because he said he owns millions of various Lego bricks.
"It requires multiple rounds of sorting as I put them away," he said.
Paprocki also implemented a simple work ethic since day one at Arizona Federal that's led him from one opportunity to another: "Over the years, I've just offered my assistance, asked good questions, and asked how I could just make things easier for people."
Paprocki moved to Mesa from outside Minneapolis with his family when he was 16 but his journey began in 1992, when he started college at Arizona State University.
After a few years, he realized his class schedule didn't have the flexibility he needed to work and complete his degree.
"At the time I contemplated quitting my job to finish at ASU, but I definitely think I made the right choice," he said.
In 1996, he transferred to the University of Phoenix, where he earned his bachelor's in business administration a few years later.
In 1999, he entered the management team and in 2016 began his current role as Chief Operating Officer where he's primarily accountable for the credit union's member service and communications areas.
While technology has shown the biggest advancements during Paprocki's 30-year career, he said the workforce has changed from transactional to consultation-based mindset.
"We help people solve problems," he said. "The way we look at it: we're a champion for our members' dreams."
Credit unions offer banking services, but unlike a bank, their profits go back to our members in one way, shape or form. "We've returned over $40 million dollars in the last 10 years to our members," he said.
Founded in 1936, Arizona Federal is a locally owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative that serves more than 145,000 member/owners, according to their website.
"Because there's no outside stakeholders to take the profits off, we're able to just continue to reinvest our income back into our membership," he said.
