More Personnel Changes at WesCorp as Nation's Largest Corporate is Realigning Around "Function"

SAN DIMAS, Calif. – The nation’s largest corporate continues to make personnel changes. Credit Union Times previously reported (CU Times, Jan. 22) the departure of three WesCorp executives: SVP of Strategic Services Steve Powell; SVP of Correspondent Services Ken Shoga; and VP of Information Technology Murrel Freeman. The latest exec to leave the WesCorp ranks is Jim McComb, VP of Strategic Management. A couple of other employees from the Strategic Management department have also left the corporate. In addition, there were two high-level promotions recently. Todd Lane, formerly Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer, has been promoted to Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer, and Bob Burrell, formerly Senior Vice President/Chief Investment Officer, is now Executive Vice President/Chief Investment Officer. “These changes are allowing us to realign ourselves to better reach our members. It also in part is due to running an efficient organization,” said Lane. The changes have been made under new leadership, WesCorp President/CEO Bob Siravo, who took the reins from Dick Johnson last May. Lane said the moves are about getting closer to members and reflect the changing business environment corporates operate in. “It’s not about the people. They were all very good, very professional. It’s functional. We’re organizing around function,” said Lane. Part of the realignment around “function”, said Lane, is WesCorp is focused more on partnering and collaborating with other organizations, specifically those where they can reach the nation’s larger, more sophisticated credit unions. WesCorp recently joined Callahan Credit Union Financial Services Limited Partnership (CUFSLP), a CUSO, which among other things administers the Trust for Credit Unions mutual funds that has $3.4 billion of credit union money under management. Forty CUs, mostly large, are partners in CUFSLP. Lane said the “large, very progressive, and forward thinking” credit unions of CUFSLP are the kind of credit unions that WesCorp wants to be close to. “We think we need to listen to them, be at the same table,” he said. He did stress that WesCorp serves all sizes of CUs, and will continue to look for ways to better serve the small and mid-sized CUs in its region, while looking to talk to large credit unions no matter where they are located. WesCorp does have various size CUs using its services in many regions of the country. For example it has a number of small CUs it does business with on the East Coast. Other recent collaborations include joining XCU Capital, a national credit-union owned broker-dealer. WesCorp could potentially become a manufacturer of investment products for XCU Capital, which like CUFSLP is made up of large credit unions. WesCorp has also been diversifying into new areas, including loan participation and business lending. Last year it worked with Counterintelligence Associates and the Small Business Administration to educate CUs about serving their business members. Lane said some of the larger credit unions around the country are seeing gaps in the kinds of products and services they can get in the capital market, another opportunity for WesCorp. “Whether it’s a corporate or a broker dealer, we can come in and fill that gap,” he said. As for any more personnel moves, Lane was not sure. [email protected]