BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. – At its annual meeting held March 25, U.S. Central elected four new board members. The make-up of the U.S. Central Board was under discussion a lot during the end of last year as part of a governance restructuring. The nine-person board now consists of seven corporate credit union CEOs and two non-corporate CEO positions from other U.S. Central members such as leagues and CUSOs. Prior to the change, there were four non-corporate CEO positions. Mid-States Corporate FCU President/CEO Dave Preter, Empire Corporate FCU President/CEO Joe Herbst and Northwest Corporate CU President/CEO Kathy Garner were elected to three year-terms. Preter, Herbst and Garner were elected as A-1, A-2, and A-3 directors respectively as part of U.S. Central's new governance model which categorizes the CEO seats based on corporates' investment in U.S. Central. CenCorp President/CEO Bill Walby was elected to a two-year term as a Class A-4 director. The A-4 director is sort of an at-large seat in that investment in U.S. Central is not considered. Preter is serving as vice chairman and Herbst as secretary. Mid-Atlantic Corporate FCU President/CEO Ed Fox is chairman and Iowa League Corporate Central CU President/CEO Tom Kuehl is treasurer. The only other corporate CU CEO on the board is Dave Brehmer of First Carolina Corporate CU. The non-corporate seats are held by CUNA EVP of External Relations Pete Crear and Ohio CU League President Paul Mercer. U.S. Central also unveiled its 2003 annual report at the meeting. The corporates' corporate hit an asset level of $35 billion last year, compared with $31.8 billion at year-end 2002. Retained earnings were up 13.1% to $535.3 million.