12 CUs & MDT Unveil Hires, Promotions & Accolades

WEST

The $7.1 billion Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa, Calif., promoted Alma Magallon to member service center manager. In her new role, she will provide vision and leadership to member service center staff and pursue continuous process improvement to ensure members get the help and information they need when they need it. She joined RCU’s member service center in 2010 and has since taken on the roles of lead trainer, supervisor and most recently assistant manager. In 2020, Magallon received a North Bay Business Journal Latino Business Leadership Award. She also serves as president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Sonoma County, participates in the planning for the South Park Day and Night Festival in Santa Rosa, and is a board member for Sonoma County’s Small Business Hardship Fund.

Wheelhouse Credit Union ($384 million, San Diego) promoted Michael Glogowski to chief information officer. In his new role, he will lead all aspects of the credit union’s enterprise technologies and strategies, as well as focus on leveraging technology to increase member convenience and service quality through expanded product and support capabilities. Glogowski has more than three decades of technology leadership experience, and has served as vice president of information technology and information security officer at Wheelhouse since 2017. A 20-year credit union industry veteran, he previously served as vice president of technology at AllSouth Federal Credit Union ($1.1 billion, Columbia, S.C.), vice president of information technology services at North Island Credit Union in San Diego and network manager for Civil Service. He began his technology career as a data systems technician for the United States Navy, where he completed three tours of Desert Storm/Desert Shield.

The $1.9 billion, Denver-based Westerra Credit Union hired Brooke Fleming as chief lending officer. In her new role, Fleming will be instrumental in the development of the credit union’s lending strategies and ensuring outstanding member service in all lending operations. Fleming will draw on more than 18 years of banking experience, including transforming digital lending and new account units, modernizing customer experience and overhauling legacy operations. She currently serves as the board vice chair of the Public Education & Business Coalition in Denver and participates as a mentor in the Professional Mentorship Program at the CU Boulder Leeds School of Business.

EAST

The $6.4 billion, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based Hudson Valley Credit Union announced two promotions and a new hire.

Taylor Craig was promoted to branch manager of the credit union’s Middletown, N.Y., branch. Craig brings eight years of banking experience to her new role, in which she will work closely with individual and business members to help them achieve their financial goals. She began her financial career as a head teller at the $11.2 billion, Bethpage, N.Y.-based Bethpage Federal Credit Union’s Commack, N.Y., location. In 2015, she joined HVCU as a financial services representative and most recently served as assistant branch manager of the Montgomery, N.Y., branch. Craig is a graduate of HVCU’s internal High Prospect Program and Leadership Orange.

Nicholas Troseth was promoted to commercial lending officer. Troseth brings over 15 years of experience to his new role, most recently serving as a business credit analyst II at HVCU. He began his career in financial services in 2004 as a junior credit analyst, and has since grown in roles of increasing responsibility that allowed him to assist many local businesses with their commercial banking needs.

Jazmin Rodriguez was hired as branch manager of the credit union’s Arlington branch in Poughkeepsie. Rodriguez brings over 15 years of banking experience to her new role. She began her financial services career in 2005 as a teller, advancing over the next eight years to positions including personal and business specialist. Since 2013, she has held roles with increasing managerial responsibility with four financial institutions. On three separate occasions, former employers awarded her for being a top performing employee.

Jim Mellendick, vice president of SECU Financial Partners at the $4.7 billion, Linthicum, Md.-based SECU, was named a 40 Under 40 Honoree by the Baltimore Business Journal. With more than 16 years of experience in wealth management and banking, Mellendick was instrumental in building SECU’s wealth management division over the last year. Prior to joining SECU, he spent 11 years at Wells Fargo, most recently serving as SVP, strategy consultant for the partnership between branch banking and wealth management. Before that, Mellendick was regional brokerage manager at Wells Fargo Advisors in Central Virginia. He also served on the National Brokerage Manager Advisory Council. His volunteer experience includes serving on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Virginia, and on the executive board of directors and as treasurer for Virginia Supportive Housing.

MIDWEST

The $3.9 billion, Eau Claire, Wis.-based Royal Credit Union promoted Hossam Selim to branch manager II of the credit union’s Edina, Minn., office. In his new role, Selim is responsible for maintaining highly engaged team members to provide outstanding levels of service to members while promoting Royal’s core values. He joined Royal in 2020 as branch manager of the Hudson, Wis. location. Selim previously served as a teller at TCF Bank after high school and worked his way up to branch manager. He was also a branch manager at Bank of America in Minnesota as well as at Beal Bank in Edina.

Linda Andry, president/CEO for the $528 million, Bettendorf, Iowa-based Ascentra Credit Union, joined the 10-member board of directors of First Community Trust, a nationally-chartered trust company offering trust, investment and retirement services, primarily through credit unions. Andry has more than 30 years of financial experience and is a CPA. Since 2005, she served as EVP and CFO for Ascentra until her appointment as CEO in June 2020. Prior to her roles at Ascentra, she worked as an internal auditor and a senior financial accountant with Bank One and was a senior accountant for Bituminous Insurance (now BITCO).

SOUTH

The $380 million, San Antonio, Texas-based United Texas Credit Union hired Cindy Koetter as vice president – business relationship manager for the Fort Worth, Texas market. In her new role, she will work with local businesses in North Texas to help them manage their day-to-day finances and plan for the future through various services such as business loans, business deposit accounts and credit cards. Before joining United Texas, Koetter held various management positions at BB&T Bank in Texas’ Tarrant County, where her responsibilities included loan portfolio growth and deposit acquisition.

The Heinz Family Foundation named Bill Bynum, founder and CEO of the $424 million, Jackson, Miss.-based Hope Credit Union, as a recipient of the 26th Heinz Awards for the Economy for his work in fair workplace policy advocacy. As part of the accolade, he will share an unrestricted cash award of $250,000 with the award’s two other recipients. Bynum is the founding CEO of HOPE, a family of organizations comprised of Hope CU, Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Policy Institute, which provide financial services, aggregate resources and engage in advocacy to combat the extent to which factors such as race, gender, birthplace and wealth limit one’s ability to prosper.

The $470 million, Harahan, La.-based OnPath Federal Credit Union promoted Kristen DeDual to chief lending officer. DeDual started with OnPath, formerly known as ASI Federal Credit Union, in 2014 as director of lending. She was promoted to director of lending and collection in 2017 and vice president of lending in 2018.

Marisa Pérez-Díaz was hired as executive director of the Firstmark Foundation, the charitable arm of the $1.2 billion, San Antonio, Texas-based Firstmark Credit Union. Pérez-Díaz brings nearly 10 years of experience in the K-12 and higher education system as a former school district administrator, university co-instructor and member of the Texas State Board of Education. In her new role, she will collaborate with leaders in higher education, school districts and education-focused non-profits to identify areas of opportunity to enrich the schools in the credit union’s community. Pérez-Díaz is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

MAX Credit Union ($1.9 billion, Montgomery, Ala.), hired Dale Watkins as chief information officer. Watkins brings 15 years of credit union experience and has built a career on innovatively finding solutions through programming, streamlining processes, product creation and integration of technologies. He is an active ambassador for the National Epilepsy Foundation, serves on the advisory board for Banno at Jack Henry & Associates and has served as a five-year den leader for the Cub Scouts of America.

CUSOS

Member Driven Technologies, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based CUSO that hosts the Episys core processing system from Symitar to provide a private cloud alternative for core processing and IT needs, promoted Carla Bettens to vice president of marketing and communications. In her new role, she will manage all aspects of marketing as well as internal and external communications, ultimately driving awareness of MDT as a leading technology provider for the credit union industry. She will also spearhead communication strategy, public relations efforts, and marketing campaigns and initiatives, as well as oversee the planning and execution of key events. Bettens has been with MDT since 2013, serving in various roles including manager of client relations, manager of enterprise relations and senior manager of product management. Prior to joining MDT, she held several executive positions in the software services and core processing industry.

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