MADISON, Wis. – To help credit unions develop strategic, business, and marketing plans, CUNA Mutual Group has created five new Member Service Officer positions. The strategists will work closely with credit union executives to set objectives and develop a clear path to “increased program success and profitability,” said John Henry, senior vice president, MEMBERS Financial Services. The MSOs will also serve as program advocates providing information and access to CUNA Mutual and MEMBERS Financial Services resources and cross-pollinators of industry best practices as they work with various credit unions in their respective regions. The MSOs will cover geographic regions and not all credit unions will have an MSO assigned to their account, Henry said. The new MSOs and their regions are: David Hunter, Northeast – Hunter was a senior manager at Mellon Bank, Terra Financial and Schwab; Jamie Letcher, Midwest, North Central and Southwest – Letcher has 20 years credit union experience and led CUNA Mutual's Financial Management Services, served as a division manager and most recently was a MEMBERS assistant vice president; Jay Petty, West – Petty was president of Pentagon Federal Financial Services in Alexandria, Va. and a former president of Loma Services Inc.; Christopher Rafanan, Southeast – Rafanan was a retail banker and branch manager for First Virginia Bank, worked in financial services capacities for First Union Bank and Securities, UVEST Investment Services and Pentagon Federal Financial Services; Rick Yarbrough, Southeast – Yarbrough has been with CUNA Mutual for 10 years, serving as MEMBERS Financial rep and division manager. CUNA Mutual has also created four levels of financial services representatives: registered services, Series 6; financial services, Series 7; advisory services, Series 65 and trust services, which will be available in the future, Henry said.