Professionals Celebrate Career Milestones at 7 CUs

WEST

The $4.7 billion Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa, Calif., promoted Julie Parsons to training and development manager. In her new role, she will evaluate and improve individual and organizational performance, develop and deliver training solutions, and ensure training is aligned with the strategic goals of the credit union. Parsons joined RCU in 2018 as assistant training manager. Before that, she worked in the mortgage and technology industries for 18 years as training director for a national company, and at Intuit as a learning solutions manager supporting 3,000 customer care agents across the globe.

The $1.7 billion Oregon Community Credit Union in Eugene, Ore., hired longtime retail banking expert Brian Alfano as COO. Alfano comes to OCCU with more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently with the $1.2 billion, Portland, Ore.-based Unitus Community Credit Union, where he served as vice president, chief retail officer. As OCCU’s COO, Alfano will oversee the credit union’s retail operations teams, including branch operations and the member contact center, as well as OCCU’s organizational development and process improvement teams.

EAST

The $974 million St. Anne’s Credit Union in Fall River, Mass., hired Rose Cortes as a mortgage loan officer based out of the credit union’s Fairhaven, Mass., office. She is responsible for maintaining and generating banking relationships with consumers seeking residential mortgages or refinancing opportunities. With 22 years of experience in the financial industry, she is also multilingual – fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English – and will provide her expertise in every area of mortgage lending, providing personalized solutions to borrower needs.

The $1.2 million Delaware State Police Federal Credit Union in Georgetown, Del., hired Daniel Bass as vice president of lending. Bass has a unique background of experience within the financial services industry combined with 11 years of law enforcement experience. Bass most recently worked at the $12.5 billion, San Jose, Calif.-based First Tech Federal Credit Union as director of consumer lending.

The $272 million Cumberland County Federal Credit Union in Falmouth, Maine promoted Ross Biette to SVP of information systems. Biette started at Cumberland County FCU in 2010 and his responsibilities have steadily increased. As a member of the senior management team, Biette will continue to provide strategic vision and leadership for the credit union’s information systems, technology, and network infrastructure and architecture.

MIDWEST

The $90 million DayMet Credit Union in Dayton, Ohio hired Jaime Crooks as vice president of marketing. Crooks most recently served as vice president of marketing at the $85 million Ohio HealthCare Federal Credit Union in Dublin, Ohio, where she worked for 13 years. During her time with Ohio HealthCare, she was promoted from marketing director to vice president of marketing, and led the credit union’s marketing initiatives and business development team.

SOUTH

The $655 million Greater Texas Credit Union in Austin, Texas hired Benjamin A. Teske as SVP, chief lending officer. Benjamin comes to Greater Texas from the $1.6 billion America’s First Federal Credit Union in Birmingham, Ala., where he most recently served as the director of lending services. With 15 years of credit union experience, he was named a Credit Union Magazine Rock Star in 2018 in recognition of his professional and community leadership. He has served in various roles on his professional ascent including teller, call center representative, loan officer and branch manager.

The $636 million Freedom First Credit Union in Roanoke, Va., promoted Steve Hildebrand to SVP of marketing. Hildebrand has served as vice president of marketing at Freedom First since 2014. Since joining Freedom First, he has helped to take its marketing and branding efforts to new heights, including leading Freedom First to be placed in the Financial Brand’s Top 10 Social Media rankings since December 2018 and Forbes’ Top 5 Credit Unions in Virginia in 2019.

VENDORS

MEMBERS Development Company promoted one employee and hired another.

Kent Zimmer was promoted to SVP of operations. Having served as MDC’s director of finance for several years, Zimmer retains responsibility for overseeing the company’s finances, budgets and investments. His new title also reflects his responsibility for (and success in) overseeing the entirety of MDC’s project portfolio as the company’s project manager. This accolade comes on the heels of the remarkable success he’s had with transforming MDC’s Innovation Council into NextUP, the credit union industry’s preeminent innovation training and development opportunity.

Kristen Jones was hired as director of corporate partnerships. Jones will oversee the planning and execution of MDC’s outreach strategies, working with MDC’s network of credit unions, CUSOs and external collaborators to source innovative partners, products and programs to drive growth and shared value. Her wealth of knowledge and experience for this new role comes from decades in the credit union industry and having held positions of leadership across multiple channels.

Please send your People news items to Tahira Hayes at thayes@cutimes.com.