CU Times 2024 Luminaries Awards Finalists: Third-Party Executive Leadership

Steve’s leadership style is characterized by adaptability, progressiveness and unwavering support for his team. He motivates and encourages his team members, fostering a collaborative environment where innovative ideas can flourish. This culture of support and encouragement has been instrumental in the company’s ability to offer best-in-class products and services, resulting in significant cost reductions and maximized results for credit unions.

Tony Boutelle: Origence

Boutelle co-founded Origence in 1994 and has since served as President/CEO, leading a team to create innovative technology solutions for credit unions to remain relevant and competitive. Thanks to Boutelle, Origence continues to strategically build and grow technology solutions to help credit unions modernize lending, open new lending channels and elevate the member experience.

Scott Cody: 3131 Media Solutions

Scott Cody founded 3131 Media Solutions, a full-service advertising agency CUSO, in 2022 and since then has helped numerous credit unions and their members expand their marketing & advertising efforts into more measurable, targeted and profitable platforms using technology, data and intuition.

Nick Evens: Curql Collective

Evens has showcased his exceptional and visionary leadership skills, forward-thinking mindset, commitment to collaboration and ability to propel the credit union industry forward through strategic investment. Curql exemplifies an ecosystem for knowledge exchange and established a model for future collaborations between the entire credit union industry and fintech companies.

Bjorn Larson: Life. Money. You., LLC

As the Executive Director of the Life. Money. You., LLC (LMY) Credit Union Service Organization owned by BCU, Larson oversees its impact and strategy. His inventive thought leadership, coaching by example and commitment to the LMY purpose to help people make better money moves are leading reasons why Larson is very deserving of the Executive Leadership Luminary recognition.

Executive Leadership – Leagues & Trades

Samantha Beeler: League of Southeastern Credit Unions

Beeler, President of LSCU, is a transformative leader who has profoundly impacted the League system and the credit union movement. Her leadership encompasses advocacy, compliance, communications, member engagement, education, the Southeastern Credit Union Foundation, and people and culture.

Jim Nussle: America’s Credit Unions

Nussle is a dynamic leader who is taking the credit union movement to new heights to best serve the industry and provide safe, affordable financial services to families and businesses. From relentless advocacy on Capitol Hill and in State Houses across the country, to rolling out top-of-the line resources and services for credit unions, Nussle’s early accomplishments at the newly formed trade association will equip credit unions with every tool they need to serve future generations of members.

Greg Mesack: America’s Credit Unions

Mesack’s approach to leadership is defined by his strategic foresight, collaborative spirit and unwavering commitment to the credit union movement. By forging strong partnerships and leveraging his extensive network, he amplifies the collective voice of credit unions, advocating for policies that empower institutions to thrive in an ever-changing environment.

Carrie Hunt: America’s Credit Unions

The pursuit of excellence has driven organizational growth at the newly formed America’s Credit Unions, where Hunt serves as the trade association’s very first Chief Advocacy Officer. In this role, Hunt ensures that the organization remains competitive and forward-thinking, putting the new organization on track as a force to be reckoned with at every level of government.

Executive Leadership – Tech Vendors & Service Providers

Adam Zarlengo: Happy Money

Under Zarlengo’s leadership, Happy Money has helped credit unions across the country acquire new members and high performing assets, all while empowering them to be a force for good throughout their communities. Happy Money has originated over $5.5 billion in loans in partnership with credit unions, representing nearly 300,000 members.

Vince Passione: LendKey

Passione’s leadership has been instrumental in addressing key challenges faced by credit unions in the digital age. By providing a secure and compliant way for lenders to offer credit products online, he has helped credit unions compete effectively in the digital lending space while maintaining their community-focused values. This aligns perfectly with the credit union industry’s need for technological advancement and member service improvement.

Bob Allen: HC3

Allen’s constant streamlining of HC3 processes showcases his innovative ideas and desire to improve solutions for customers. Additionally, his leadership in the seamless ERP software migration over the past year showcases his exceptional project management skills and ability to integrate technology solutions effectively. Allen’s strategic planning and innovative thinking continue to cultivate a culture of improvement.

Sarah Murray: TruStage

As a leader within TruStage Compliance Solutions, Murray is a driver of innovation within the organization’s technology solutions to empower credit unions to provide the best experience to their members. Under Murray’s leadership, the deposit solutions are continuously evaluated and enhanced to provide greater flexibility, transparency and usability for both credit union staff and their members.

Siva Narendra: Tyfone

Narendra, CEO and co-founder at Tyfone, has more than 20 years of experience at the organization and his passion for innovation and problem-solving has resulted in 140 patents in the fields of digital banking, authorized services, near-field and far-field payments, decentralized cryptography, commerce and blockchain.

Ravi Srinivasan: Votiro

Under Srinivasan’s leadership, Votiro is empowering credit unions to proactively mitigate cyber threat attempts, data intercept and exportation, insider threats, noncompliance findings and more in a single interface. He has plans to continue advancing the privacy and compliance features within the DDR platform to better secure data in-transit, particularly within GenAI models, cloud storage environments and content collaboration platforms.

Jeff Grobaski: Epic River

Under Grobaski’s leadership, Epic River has been able to connect credit unions with local health care providers to improve patients’ ability to pay through low- or no-interest loans. Epic River’s program accelerates patient payment, minimizes collection expenses and enhances cash flow for participating health care providers.

Steve Koinm: Pure IT Credit Union Services

Co-Founder and CISO Koinm has dedicated himself to the credit union industry, tirelessly working to enhance security awareness. Under his leadership, the vCISO practice has expanded over seven years, now supporting over 40 credit unions through the Pure IT vCISO Advisor Program and various Information Security projects.

Juliet D’Ambrosio: Adrenaline

D’Ambrosio is simultaneously at the forefront and behind the curtain of the credit union movement, empowering credit union brands to uncover their special sauce and bring it into the marketplace. Working with credit unions of all shapes and sizes, she is perhaps the industry’s most sought after strategist helping to drive brand differentiation and turbocharge growth.

Anne Holtzman: Allied Solutions

Holtzman’s unwavering dedication to the credit union mission is the fuel behind her innate ability to lead others. Her knowledge, innovation and commitment to always putting the client first have resulted in recovering over $300 million annually for credit unions and their members through recovery solutions provided, architected and led by Holtzman.