CUs in the West & Midwest Welcome New Team Members

WEST

The $3 billion, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Nusenda Credit Union hired two new executives.

Amy Nigrelli was hired as chief marketing officer. Nigrelli has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and operations and joins Nusenda after nine years at CUNA in Madison, Wis. She held several roles there including chief marketing and digital officer, chief marketing and technology officer, and vice president of marketing communications. She also spent 15 years at a top global law firm serving as director of marketing, and held leadership roles in operations and human resources.

Jeff Benefiel was hired as SVP of core applications and digital innovations. Benefiel has nearly 20 years of experience in the development and IT industry and joins Nusenda from the $3.88 billion Teachers Credit Union in South Bend, Ind., where he served as vice president for digital delivery and payments. He also held positions as vice president of IT, assistant vice president of systems and data, and assistant vice president of applications development.

The $2.7 billion, Boulder, Colo.-based Elevations Credit Union announced five new hires and one employee move.

Mike Bell was hired as a mortgage loan officer. Bell has worked in the mortgage industry since 2014, drawing on prior experience in the title insurance and real estate industry as a licensed Realtor. He has also worked with private residential builders, making him a knowledgeable resource for new construction.

Keri Bills was hired as a mortgage loan officer. A Colorado resident for over 20 years, Bills is passionate about hosting first-time homebuyer workshops, but is proudest of helping repeat buyers purchase their next home, and being trusted by second and third generation family members as their mortgage lender.

John Wetzig was hired as a mortgage loan officer. With over 31 years of mortgage experience, Wetzig takes pride in helping his members find the right mortgage solutions for their needs from a wide variety of products and programs. Bell, Bills and Wetzig will all be based at the Elevations Denver Mortgage Office.

Jason Barnes was hired as a commercial loan officer, joining the credit union’s commercial lending team at its Fort Collins Midtown Branch. Barnes has over 14 years of experience providing financial solutions for businesses along Colorado’s Front Range. His extensive lending background includes commercial and investment real estate, business acquisition and expansion, and working capital solutions.

Douglas Thormahlen was hired as senior commercial loan officer and will be based at the Elevations Denver Mortgage Office. Having previously been a small business owner, Thormahlen understands the challenges that business owners face. He draws on 34 years of experience in the banking and finance industry, including commercial lending, real estate lending, construction lending, consumer lending and insurance.

Gary Kindle, a member of Elevations’ senior leadership team, has taken on a new role leading vendor management and business continuity as SVP of vendor management. Kindle will utilize his extensive operations experience to effectively manage the credit union’s most critical vendors and suppliers.

The $7.7 billion, Portland, Ore.-based OnPoint Community Credit Union hired Cory Freeman as vice president and regional manager of the 20 new branches located within Fred Meyer stores across Oregon and Southwest Washington that will be opening throughout 2021.

Freeman brings more than 20 years of experience managing branches across the nation. He began his career managing Washington Mutual’s retail branch expansion, and served in multiple branch and district manager roles in Oregon, Utah, Denver and Chicago. He then returned to Oregon in 2007 to head Chase Bank branches in the East Portland market for six years. Prior to joining OnPoint, Freeman served as a district manager with U.S. Bank for six years.

Redwood Credit Union ($5.95 billion, Santa Rosa, Calif.) promoted Fong Nguyen to lending operations manager. In her new role, Nguyen will lead the lending operations team, and is responsible for loan documentation, funding and servicing for RCU’s business, consumer and mortgage lending channels. Nguyen joined RCU in 2010 as a teller and has since served as a member service representative, consumer loan funder, SBA/commercial portfolio coordinator and specialist, and assistant manager SBA/commercial portfolio analysis.

MIDWEST

The $4.8 billion Veridian Credit Union in Waterloo, Iowa promoted three employees.

Laura Sires was promoted to the position of project manager. Sires has worked at Veridian for 14 years and was previously the branch manager of the Veridian location inside the Crossroads Hy-Vee store in Waterloo.

Michael Mangin was promoted to the position of consumer loan processing team leader. Mangin has worked at Veridian for 22 years and was previously the branch manager at Veridian’s Ansborough Avenue location. He serves as the vice chair on the Cedar Falls Board of Adjustment in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Jessica McDermott was promoted to the position of card services system specialist. McDermott has worked at Veridian for five years and was previously the card services coordinator.

Erie Johnson joined the $494 million, Bettendorf, Iowa-based Ascentra Credit Union’s in-house trust partner, First Community Trust (FCT), as vice president and trust officer. Johnson practiced law for almost eight years before moving into the wealth management industry, where he spent another eight years dedicated to helping people accomplish their goals.

Now with FCT, Erie is focused on managing and administering IRAs, trusts and investment agency accounts, and supervising estate administration for his clients. He applies his education and past work experience as an attorney to the areas of trusts and estates and family law, and his past work as a fiduciary wealth manager to provide a client-focused approach to developing wealth management strategies.

AGENCIES

The NCUA hired Elizabeth J. Fischmann as the agency’s first chief ethics counsel, effective Dec. 21. In this new role, Fischmann will oversee the Office of Ethics Counsel that will certify the agency’s compliance with relevant federal ethics laws and regulations, promote accountability and ethical conduct, and help ensure the success of the NCUA’s ethics programs, including programs designed to prevent harassment, discrimination and misconduct in the workplace. She will report directly to the NCUA board and will be supervised by the NCUA chairman. Fischmann currently serves as the associate general counsel, ethics and designated agency ethics official for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her professional experience includes serving as an associate counsel at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and deputy counsel for the U.S. Department of the Navy. She attained a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and Maryland Bar.

VENDORS

Lightico, a New York City-based provider of a digital customer interaction platform, hired Rich Corriss as its new director of customer success. A banking and technology veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, Corriss will help lead Lightico’s continued growth in the banking, auto finance and credit union space. Corriss joins Lightico following two years as senior sales engineer at Lytics, as well as nearly a decade at LivePerson. Prior to that, Corriss spent 19 years holding a variety of roles at JP Morgan Chase and Citi.

Please send your People news items to Natasha Chilingerian at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.