Careers Advance at Credit Unions & Tech Vendors

WEST

The $3.8 billion, Folsom, Calif.-based SAFE Credit Union hired Micah Grant as assistant vice president of communications and public relations. Grant, a veteran communications professional who has worked in the California Legislature as a consultant, will oversee a team that delivers public relations and external communications for SAFE. He most recently was vice president of Mercury Public Affairs, where he developed, directed and executed strategic communications campaigns for a variety of clients, including government relations work, grassroots marketing, and media relations. He is a Natomas Unified School District trustee and serves as vice chair for California Black Media.

The $1.2 billion San Francisco Federal Credit Union promoted Melissa Palwick from consumer lending manager to chief member experience officer. As consumer lending manager, Palwick has been responsible for all underwriting, processing, new product development, quality assurance and servicing of consumer loan products. Prior to joining the credit union, she spent 20 years at Bank of the West, working her way up from an entry level customer service position to vice president of dealer financial service operations. In her new role, Palwick will oversee the Member Service Center, training, business and community development, marketing, and digital sales and service.

EAST

The $380 million, Albany, N.Y.-based First New York Credit Union hired Eric Greenhill to its retirement and investment services department as an associate financial advisor. In his new role, Greenhill will focus on helping credit union members assess and meet their core financial needs of growth, income, protection and legacy. He will also partner with credit union employees to help members meet the other two core financial needs of cash management and credit. Prior to joining First New York, Greenhill served at AYCO over the previous two years, most recently as a financial planner.

Northwest Financial Advisors (NWFA), which is owned by NW Capital Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $4.2 billion, Herndon, Va.-based Northwest Federal Credit Union, promoted Jerry Guido from financial advisor to wealth advisor. Guido has over a decade of experience in the financial advisory business, in addition to more than three decades of experience assisting both individual and business clients with financial, accounting, business operations and taxation issues. He has been with Northwest Financial Advisors for over five years and holds the Certified Financial Planner designation from the CFP Board. Guido is based in NWFA’s Herndon, Va., headquarters and also serves residents onsite at Falcon’s Landing military retirement community in Herndon.

SOUTH

The $606.9 million, Sunrise, Fla.-based BrightStar Credit Union promoted Ayleen Alfonso to compliance and fraud manager. Alfonso will be responsible for the credit union’s day-to-day BSA/AML compliance program and managing action plans for the detection and prevention of fraud. She began her career at the credit union in April 2018 as a BSA specialist and shortly after was promoted to assistant compliance and fraud manager. Alfonso also brings years of experience to her new role from working at South Florida credit unions, including the $130.8 million Miami Firefighters Federal Credit Union, Jetstream Federal Credit Union ($224.2 million, Miami Lakes, Fla.) and Mercy Credit Union, which merged into Jetstream in 2012.

The $3.8 billion, Austin, Texas-based UFCU promoted three employees.

Heather McKissick was promoted to EVP of community impact, communications and marketing. In this newly-created position, McKissick will oversee UFCU’s efforts to advance the financial health of its communities; provide leadership on diversity, equity and inclusion, relationship management and social purpose; and oversee communications and marketing. After joining UFCU in 2013 as vice president of human resources and organizational development, McKissick was named vice president of community impact in 2018 before progressing to SVP in 2019. Before joining UFCU, she served as president/CEO of Leadership Austin, where she remains a faculty member.

Jim Brown was promoted to vice president of lending and chief lending officer, succeeding Laurie Roberts who retired on Dec. 31, 2020. Brown, who was named vice president of retail lending in early 2020, will add commercial lending to his responsibilities, including consumer, mortgage and insurance services, and long-term lending strategy development, implementation and oversight. Brown joined UFCU in 1989 as a collections officer and has progressed through positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of credit, consumer lending and retail lending.

Esther Edevold was promoted to vice president of finance and will oversee UFCU’s critical financial functions. Most recently, Edevold was director of financial planning and analytics, and first joined UFCU in 2006 as an accountant. She has since held positions of increasing responsibility and led teams responsible for secondary markets, budgeting, profitability, investment portfolio, interest rate risk, mortgage pipeline hedging, liquidity, process improvement, data analytics and data strategy.

The $348.9 million Louisiana Federal Credit Union in La Place, La., promoted two employees.

Eric Starkey was promoted to chief information officer and will oversee the network, data analytics and information security functions of the credit union. He joined Louisiana FCU in August 2018 as director of information technology and security, and has earned five professional certifications in the IT space since 2019. His experience also includes serving as manager of information technology for Associated Terminals LLC in Convent, La., and manager of information systems for Distributors Terminal Corporation in Terre Haute, Ind.

Melissa Tullier was promoted to vice president of consumer lending. In her new role, Tullier will lead the credit union’s lending team to meet the consumer and mortgage borrowing needs of the membership, with the goal of optimizing all lending processes to ensure exceptional member experience and financial benefit to the credit union. She joined Louisiana FCU in 2015 as director of eServices, and her experience also includes serving as product and marketing coordinator and associate product manager for EATEL in Gonzales, La.

The $468 million, Nashville, Tenn.-based Cornerstone Financial Credit Union promoted five employees.

Linda Summarell was promoted to chief lending officer. Summarell has been with Cornerstone for over 35 years and most recently was SVP of lending.

Rod Payne was promoted to chief information officer. Payne has over 22 years’ experience in the credit union industry, 16 of those with Cornerstone, as well as a decade of experience in health care. He began his credit union career as programmer with a Memphis-based credit union software company before working as a consultant with a few credit unions in Middle and East Tennessee. Before joining Cornerstone as assistant vice president, information systems in 2004, he spent 10 years with LabCorp as IT director, managing its Brentwood, Tenn., data center.

Donna Young was promoted to president, replacing Joe Spivey who retired in January 2021 after serving as president since 2016. Young has spent over 42 years in the credit union industry, 31 of those with Cornerstone. Starting her credit union career as a teller at the $2.7 billion, Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based ORNL Credit Union, she also worked with new accounts and business development before transitioning her career to Cornerstone, where she held positions such as training manager, assistant vice president of marketing, vice president of human resources and most recently EVP.

Kallar McCown was promoted to vice president of branch operations. McCown brings over a decade of experience in the financial industry, having served at both banks and credit unions. He previously held positions such as branch manager, retail director, mortgage lending officer and most recently regional branch operations manager for Cornerstone.

Laura Williamson was promoted to EVP. Williamson has over 27 years’ experience in the credit union industry, 22 of those with Cornerstone. Prior to beginning her credit union career, she performed audits as a Certified Public Accountant and was the controller for a health care group. Her credit union experience includes serving as controller for a Middle Tennessee credit union before joining Cornerstone, where she has held positions such as vice president – CUSO, vice president of strategic initiatives and most recently COO.

VENDORS

IMM, a Rahway, N.J.-based provider of e-signature and digital transaction solutions for banks and credit unions, promoted two executives.

Former Vice President of Operations Howard Klein was promoted to COO. Klein joined IMM in 2011, and in his new role, he will assume more oversight and strategic planning responsibilities across IMM’s business operations and corporate infrastructure.

Former Vice President of Markets and Strategy Michael Ball was promoted to SVP of strategy and innovation. In his new expanded role, Ball will continue to oversee the development and execution of IMM’s marketing and product strategy and will add responsibilities for the company’s sales efforts, customer service initiatives, product innovation, professional services and marketing operations for both the banking and credit union divisions. He is a 30-year veteran of the financial services industry.

The Miami Beach, Fla.-based Nymbus, a provider of banking technology to banks and credit unions, hired two executives.

Larry McClanahan was hired as chief product officer. In his new role, he will be responsible for the organizations that design and build strategic digital banking solutions for new and existing clients. His more than a decade of financial institution experience includes serving at MidFirst Bank and Fifth Third Bank.

Sarah Howell was hired as chief alliance officer. In her new role, she will help advance Nymbus’ network of partnerships in order to generate further differentiated solution offerings and value on behalf of the company’s partners, financial institution clients and their banking customers. She initially gained experience in partnerships at Global Payments, where she played an instrumental role in the launch of Apple Pay, then moved to a broader partner ecosystem at the payment network level through her role as director of partnerships at Visa.

AKUVO, a Malvern, Penn.-based firm focused on member and portfolio risk within credit unions, appointed Steve Castagna to the newly-created position of COO. Castagna has more than 20 years of experience in fintech sales and operations, and previously worked with AKUVO Founder Jay Mossman at Akcelerant Software. He advanced to SVP of professional services and continued with the firm for five years after its sale to Temenos USA. His responsibilities will include customer relationships, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and strategic partnerships.

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