20 Professionals Begin New Credit Union Industry Roles

WEST

The $1.5 billion, Roanoke, Va.-based Member One Federal Credit Union announced three board appointments.

Armistead Lemon was appointed as an associate director. Lemon serves as head of school for North Cross School, an independent day and boarding school for students in JK3 through 12th grade, in Roanoke. Her career over the last 18 years has been in independent school education and leadership. She received a master of arts in English literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Beth Nash was appointed as an associate director. Nash is a local government attorney with 28 years of experience representing private and public sector entities. She received a doctor of jurisprudence from the West Virginia University College of Law. She also serves on the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary board and the boards of the Legal Aid Society of Roanoke Valley, the Virginia Women Attorney’s Association and Mill Mountain Zoo.

Rebecca Owens was appointed as an associate director. Owens is the Roanoke County Deputy County administrator, a position responsible for the county’s financial operations. She has more than 30 years of experience in local government, serving Roanoke County for more than 20 of those years. She holds an MBA from Averett University in Danville, Va.

The $1.1 billion, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Sandia Area Federal Credit Union hired Annalee Bradley as vice president of human resources. Bradley brings more than 15 years of experience working in various industries, including health care and food distribution. Her new role is her first within the financial industry. Bradley graduated from the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management and holds both SHRM-SCP and SPHR certifications.

The $5.4 billion, Richland, Wash.-based Gesa Credit Union announced two promotions.

Nathaniel Prior was promoted to vice president of branches. Prior has worked at Gesa for the last 10 years and previously served as the credit union’s assistant vice president of retail sales and service. He holds an MBA from Strayer University in Herndon, Va., and completed the Leadership Spokane program in 2020. Prior also serves as the vice chair for Leadership Spokane and is on the board of the Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation.

Joan Wacker was promoted to vice president of collections and loan services. Wacker has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, 14 of which have been with Gesa. In her new role, she will oversee all collections and loan servicing activities for Gesa’s loan portfolio, including consumer and real estate, to ensure consistent, effective and timely service to its membership. Wacker has spent the last 20 years in Washington State’s Tri-Cities, primarily working in financial services. In 2009, she joined Gesa as the mortgage servicing liaison, and since then, has worked in various management roles overseeing the loan servicing, consumer lending and collections departments.

MIDWEST

The $1.3 billion, Columbus, Ohio-based Telhio Credit Union hired Nick Biratsis as vice president of marketing. Biratsis brings over 20 years of marketing and client relationship management experience, primarily in financial services. He previously spent 17 years at Alliance Data Card Services (now Bread Financial) leading teams that developed marketing strategies for several large credit card portfolios.

SOUTH

Brandon Allen, assistant vice president of business systems and application development for the $1.8 billion, Indian Land, S.C.-based Sharonview Federal Credit Union, was selected as one of York County’s Ones to Watch for 2023. This award recognizes outstanding professionals under the age of 40 who work and live in York County, South Carolina. Outside of Sharonview, Allen runs his designated 501c3 non-profit organization, Palmetto Impact SC, which aims to empower and inspire children to reach their full potential by providing them with resources and opportunities for their growth and development.

VENDORS

Glia, a New York, N.Y.-based provider of digital customer service solutions, hired Jay Choi into the newly-created role of chief product officer. In this role, Choi will oversee product strategy, product management and product marketing under a single team. He has been serving as an advisor for Glia over the past 12 months, and previously served as the chief strategy officer and general manager at AppFolio. He also previously served as chief product officer at Qualtrics.

The Dallas, Texas-based financial advisory services provider ALM First hired Jim McGrath as director, sales and client relations. McGrath brings 23 years of industry experience, having most recently served as regional vice president for Allied Solutions.

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