Mary Cunningham headed West this year, leaving her position as president/CEO of the $215 million CUNA Credit Union, Madison, Wis. to become president/CEO of USA FCU, a $425 million CU located in San Diego. *

Callahan & Associates lost one of its cornerstone employees this year in Ray Springsteen. He was with Callahan's for about eight years. He left to join the $600 million Security CU, Portsmouth, N.H., where he serves as vice president of marketing. *

Paul Danola, a former Fiserv exec well-known in the credit union data processing space moved on to join Call_Solutions, a call center firm led by fomer Fiserv CEO George Dalton. *

Dave Palmer, founder and long-time CEO of credit union data processor C.U. Processing has left C.U. Processing. The firm was acquired by Canadian IT giant CGI earlier this year. C.U. Processing co-founder Paul Chauvin has also left the firm. *

Len Skiles became the acting executive director for NCUA following the departure of former/NCUA Chairman Norm D'Amours. Dollar made the position a career position and the `acting' from Skiles' title was dropped. *

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Donna Tanoue resigned her position in June of this year upon the confirmation of her replacement, Texas banker Donald Powell. Tanoue began a crusade to overhaul the banking insurance system, including offering rebates, eliminating the `free rider' issue, and increasing coverage. *

Five years after giving up his president/CEO seat to Robert Anderson and becoming chairman of the board, Liberty's founder David Copham reassumed his CEO responsibilities in October following Anderson's departure from the company. Anderson had worked with Liberty since 1992, first as vice president of marketing and then as president. He helped steer Libery's expansion beyond just being a check printer and was behind the negotiations and eventual acquisition by Liberty of Cavion. * Office of Thrift Supervision Director Ellen Seidman resigned her post mid-term, after having been asked by the Republican administration. Her replacement, James Gilleran was sworn in to the office December 7. * Former NAFCU Director of Legislative and Political Affairs Murray Chanow gave up his position to work as a part-time lobbyist for the association and spend time with his son born in February. Charlie Frohman, who had taken over Chanow's position, has recently left NAFCU and the search is on for a new staffer. *

Nancy Pierce, president/CEO of Mazuma CU, Kansas City, for the last 13 years, retired on Sept. 1. Pierce plans to study consumer savings and consumption habits – research that she says will be helpful to CUs. Pierce was in the spotlight in 2000 as chair of CUNA. Robert Givens succeeded Pierce as Mazuma's president/CEO. Prior to that he served as CFO for Credit Union of Southern California. *

Dorothy Nouhan, CEO, USA FCU, retired March 16 after 35 years of service with the credit union, the last five of which were in the CEO position. She was succeeded by Mary McDonald, previously the $450 million USAFCU's executive vice president. *

Herbert Walberg, president/CEO of the Montana Credit Union System, retired May 1 after spending almost 30 years of his professional career with Montana credit unions. In addition to his work with the Montana Credit Union System, Walberg also served in various capacities with CUNA, the American Association of Credit Union Leagues (AACUL) and CUNA Mutual Group. Walberg was succeeded by Tracie Kenyon Karls, former vice president of dues supported services, Utah League of Credit Unions. *

After spending almost a decade working as executive director of the National Credit Union Foundation, Pat Brownell, retired from the foundation in Madison, Wis. She married Bill Sterner, president/CEO, U of C FCU in Boulder, Colo. and relocated there. Gary Officer was named as Brownell's successor. * Several lawmakers have announced that they will not be seeking reelection in 2002. Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm (R-Texas) said that he would be retiring at the end of his term confident that a fellow Republican will replace him. Gramm has been a friend to credit unions in repealing the CRA-like Community Action Plan regulation, expected to be eliminated at the NCUA's December board meeting. *

Fellow Republican Senator Strom Thurmond (S.C.) will not be seeking reelection next year. He turned 99 at the beginning of the month. *

Congresswoman Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) announced her retirement just weeks ago. She served as the vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee and was credit union friendly. * With the bankruptcy and sale of Cavion to Liberty, Cavion President/CEO Dave Selina left Cavion and joined EDS as a client executive. Selina is specializing in EDS' Net banking solution. Selina worked for EDS earlier in his career and was CEO of World Computer. * After more than two decades with the agency, Director of Public and Congressional Affairs Bob Loftus retired. Cliff Northup, a former CUNA lobbyist in the early 1980s, replaced him. Nick Owens also joined on the agency staff as special assistant to the chairman for public affairs. * CUNA lobbyist John McKechnie nearly joined NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar's staff as legislative liaison. CUNA lured him back when its Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs Carl Parks left CUNA to work for the National Association of Independent Insurers, and CUNA offered McKechnie the job. * Larry Blanchard has assumed a new role with CUNA Mutual Group. Fomerly SVP of Corporate Communications, he now serves as SVP of Legislative and Corporate Affairs. Blanchard will act in more of a lobbying role for CUNA Mutual, spending more time in Washington D.C. Jon Nelson has joined CUNA Mutual as SVP of Communications and Public Affairs. Nelson most recently served as director of Global Communications and Public Affairs for the Integrated Electronic Systems Sector of Motorola. * Former-NCUA Board Member Shirley Bown had been nominated to chair of the Federal Housing Finance Board, but turned the position down. She originally accepted the nomination until realizing that the term would last just over two years.