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Keynote Speakers
Dedrick Asante-Muhammed is Director of the Racial Wealth Divide Project at CFED. As Director, Dedrick’s responsibilities include strengthening CFED’s outreach and partnership with communities of color, as well as strengthening CFED’s racial wealth divide analysis in its work. CFED's Racial Wealth Divide Project will also lead wealth-building projects that will establish best practices and policy recommendations to address racial economic inequality.
Before CFED, Dedrick worked for the NAACP, where he was the Sr. Director of the Economic Department and Executive Director of the Financial Freedom Center.
Mollie Bell is chief transformation officer for CUNA. She works closely with CUNA’s leadership team and marketplace leaders to implement lasting, positive change within CUNA as defined by CUNA’s vision and strategic plan. Bell’s work includes developing collaborative, cross-functional teams to assess current capability gaps to ensure CUNA’s strategic initiatives are implemented and success measures are realized.
Bell has extensive experience in organizational strategic planning and implementation including over 8 years focused on the credit union movement. Prior to joining CUNA, Bell served as Filene Research Institute’s chief engagement officer. Bell and her team were responsible for collaborating with and developing new benefactors, maturing Filene’s membership processes and managing Filene’s brand and events. Bell previously served as an executive with CUNA Mutual Group and held consulting positions with Accenture, a global management consulting and technology services organization. Her diverse background also includes positions in law, teaching and sales.
Bill Bynum is chief executive officer of HOPE, a credit union (Hope Credit Union), loan fund (Hope Enterprise Corporation) and policy center (Hope Policy Institute) dedicated to improving lives in one of the nation’s most persistently impoverished regions. Since 1994 HOPE has provided financial services, leveraged private and public resources, and shaped policies that have benefited more than 650,000 residents in the Delta and other distressed parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
For more than three decades, Bynum has worked to advance economic opportunity for disenfranchised populations. He began his professional career by helping to establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development finance industry, and later built nationally recognized programs at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. A recipient of the Aspen Global Leadership Network John P. McNulty Prize and University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, Bill has advised Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama on financial service matters, and served ten years as Chairman of Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board. He currently chairs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board and is a member of the US Partnership for Mobility from Poverty, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other board service includes: NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Aspen Institute, Corporation for Enterprise Development, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Fannie Mae Affordable Housing Advisory Council, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and Millsaps College.
Monica Hughes Davy is the Director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. As director, Davy oversees the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 involving diversity, civil rights and the promotion of minority and women hiring and contracting practices throughout the credit union industry and at NCUA.
Prior to joining NCUA, Davy served as executive director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the Internal Revenue Service. She also served as acting director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Management as acting director, and as a senior trial attorney at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Davy holds degrees from the Howard University School of Law and George Mason University.
Director Annie Donovan has deep roots in community development and finance. She was most recently Chief Executive Officer of CoMetrics, a social enterprise that provides high quality, affordable business intelligence tools to small businesses and nonprofits seeking to improve financial management, better measure social impact, and increase their capacity for innovation.
Prior to CoMetrics, Director Donovan was Senior Policy Advisor to the White House, working collaboratively with the Office of Social Innovation and the Council on Environmental Quality. She was part of a team focused on advancing impact investing, social enterprise and impact data as key strategies for improving the social sector. Donovan has been Chief Operating Officer of Capital Impact Partners, a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) where she was instrumental in creating the high performing teams and strategic plans that positioned Capital Impact as a market leader in the areas of education, health care, long terms care and affordable homeownership finance. She led the company’s efforts to build capacity in fundraising, policy, and innovation.
Director Donovan has also been a thought leader and a board member of many of the highest performing organizations in the community development sector, including serving as President of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. She has published papers and articles for the National Academy for Public Administration, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Forbes, and the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics and an MBA in Finance.
As managing director, innovation, Andrew leads Filene’s prestigious i3(Ideas, Innovation, Implementation) program , along with subsequent testing of its financial product, service, and business model ideas. He's an i3alum and championed the Centsus and WheelChoice ideas.
Andrew comes to Filene from SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union in Santa Ana, CA, where he served as manager of product development. While at SchoolsFirst, he was responsible for success in driving product development, optimizing current products, and meeting member service and financial goals. He has 15 years executive marketing, product development, and finance experience at several credit unions throughout Southern California. Andrew's industry expertise extends specifically to credit, debit, and prepaid card strategy and program development.
Bill Hampel is chief policy officer and chief economist for the Credit Union National Association. He joined the department as an economist in 1978 and was promoted to vice president in 1985. He was appointed senior vice president in 1992. Until 1997, Hampel was based at CUNA’s Madison offices. Since then he has worked out of CUNA’s Washington DC offices.
Hampel served as a staff member at Navy Federal Credit Union in Virginia during a one-year sabbatical in 1989-90, where he studied credit union operations and carried out a variety of consulting projects. He has served on the Board of Directors of CUNA credit union since 1991, chairing the Board from 1999 to 2001. He currently serves on the board for the National Cooperative Bank.
Rich Meade is chief of staff and chief operating officer of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), a role in which he serves as the association’s second-ranking executive and principal advisor to CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle.
He has extensive experience in legislative, regulatory, political and public relations strategy, garnered through his service as a congressional staff member and as an advocate.
Meade served for 14 years as a congressional staffer in the Congress. He was chief of staff for the House Budget Committee, where he was the committee’s principal liaison to the House leadership, the administration, and all committees of the House of Representatives. He was also the committee’s leading policy director, placing him at the center of major legislative accomplishments in the 107thand 108th Congresses.
Meade also served in the office of Rep. Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) as legislative assistant, legislative director, chief of staff and lead policy advisor for the committees on which Nussle served, including the Ways and Means, Banking and Financial Services and the Agriculture Committees. Prior to that, Meade worked for Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa) and served on Tauke’s U.S. Senate campaign.
He has been a guest on CSPAN public affairs programs and a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences and events, including addresses at the National Press Club.
Meade served as an advisor on economic matters to the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush in 2004 and helped arrange the first campaign visit to Iowa of then-Governor Bush in 1999.
Prior to joining CUNA, Meade was managing director of Prime Policy Group a public policy and government affairs firm.
He graduated with distinction from the George Washington University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. He and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Falls Church, Virginia with their four children.
Rod Staatz has been President and CEO of SECU CU since 2003. With over 39 years of financial experience, Rod has held various executive banking positions before joining the credit union movement in 1996.
Working in both the banking and credit union worlds has given Rod a unique appreciation for what credit unions provide that for-profit financial institutions can't. He is passionately dedicated to the credit union philosophy. Rod serves as CUNA's Chairman and also sits on the Boards of CSCU (Card Services for Credit Unions), OTS (Open Technology Solutions), Shared Services Solutions (S3), the Maryland/DC Credit Union Association, and is Chairman of the Advocacy Committee for the Association. He was Vice-Chair of the CUNA Membership Growth Task Force in 2007, was the Chairman of the National Credit Union Roundtable for 2008-2009 and served on the Structure & Governance Task Force in 2014-2015.
John Tippets has been active in the Credit Union community for more than 30 years. He was the President/CEO of the American Airlines Federal Credit Union from 1991 until his retirement in 2008, a conclusion of a 42-year career association with American Airlines. Tippets subsequently served as the President/CEO of the North Island Credit Union (in San Diego, Ca.) from 2009 to 2012, and had been recognized as a CU “CEO of the Year” for 2012. He has also worked as a consultant for several credit unions and recently served as an interim CEO at the Alliance FCU in Lubbock, Tx.
John has been a frequent speaker and panelist at Trade Association and other Credit Union events and conferences across the country. Tippets served as a member of the “Federal Reserve Board Thrift Institutions Advisory Council,” “Fannie Mae’s National Advisory Council,” the “National Association of Federal Credit Unions Board of Directors,” and the “Pulse Network Board of Directors.
Breakout Session Speakers
Paul Ablack, Founder and CEO, OnApproach: Paul started OnApproach to provide credit unions with a powerful, yet affordable, Big Data/Analytics Solution. OnApproach became a CUSO in 2014 and developed OnApproach M360™ Enterprise, which is the first solution that enables credit unions to integrate ALL of their data into a single source of truth. With this solution credit unions can compete effectively and thrive in the financial services industry that is increasingly being dominated by analytics. Prior to starting OnApproach, Paul was Vice President/General Manager of energy information services for the Honeywell Automation & Control services business. His global responsibilities included overseeing all aspects of strategic planning, marketing, promotion, research and development and general management of the energy information services business. Paul has also held a variety of key sales leadership and general management positions across the United States and Canada for both Honeywell and General Electric. Paul's background includes experience in financial services, energy, manufacturing and technology. The recipient of numerous sales and leadership awards, Paul has been an active member of several industry and business organizations including The Authentic Leadership Project, The Data Warehouse Institute, and the Richard Ivey School of Business. He earned an honors business administration degree from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Paul is actively involved in helping credit unions understand the importance of analytics for their future and currently serves as a member on the Vendor Advisory Board for CUFX.
Mariel Beasley is a Senior Applied Researcher at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University and Co-Director of the Common Cents Lab - a subcenter committed to improving the financial behavior of low to moderate income households. The Common Cents Lab is committed to directly (and measurably) impacting the financial well-being of over 1 million Americans by 2020.
Working directly with credit unions, non-profits, and local governments, Mariel incorporates findings from the behavioral sciences to help members, clients, and citizens lead happier, healthier, and wealthier lives. Mariel and her team use qualitative and quantitative methods to design and rigorously test ideas in the field, exploring what is needed, what works, and how to move forward.
Eric Day served on the Credit Union of Southern California Board for twenty years. As a credit union volunteer, Eric was also a principal owner of Zieman Manufacturing, a business with eight manufacturing plants throughout the western states. During Eric’s 35-year career with Zieman, he was directly accountable for profit and loss results as well as risk management. Zieman touted 80 million in sales and 400 plus employees when Mr. Day and his partners sold the business in 2004.
Since selling the company, Eric has devoted his time and efforts to credit union advocacy. His strong belief in the power of the volunteers’ story led him to help found the California League's Volunteer Advocacy Group. It has members throughout California. This league sponsored, peer-to-peer group is active in letter writing campaigns and visits to elected officials. The Volunteer Advocacy Group also provides support and encouragement to volunteers wherever they are in their advocacy journey. In addition, Eric serves as an active member of CUNA's Volunteer Advocacy Committee.
Eric is also a former board member of the Whittier Chamber of Commerce and remains active in that organization. He has served in multiple board positions including Treasurer and Board Chair of the Modular Building Institute. He has also served on the California/Nevada Credit Union League Board where he was assigned to the Audit and Budget Committees.
Kathy Campbell is Chief Executive Officer & President of Northeast Community Credit Union in East Tennessee. With more than 37 years of credit union experience, Kathy has led NCCU to achieve decades of continual growth and financial stability at the 10,000-member credit union. The credit union has $112 million in assets and has 4 locations. Ms. Campbell oversees all aspects of operations and remains dedicated to developing innovative and inspirational ways to help improve the lives of those less fortunate by providing special programs for single parents, veterans, and underserved youth in the community. She has served as Chapter President, has received the Kiwanian of the Year Award, the George Hixon Fellow award, and works diligently with local agencies by serving advisory and administrative roles as well as through hands-on community service projects. Recently, Mrs. Campbell worked with their team of managers and Inclusiv to earn the Community Development Financial Institution status this year.
NCCU is a low income designated credit union with more than 90% of its membership classified as low income and has served the area for over 64 years. NCCU has been awarded the CUNA National Lending Award for its affordable Home Loan program, was selected as the 2015 National Community Credit Union of the Year, and has achieved recognition on local and state levels for devoting staff and financial resources to enrich the lives of others.
Carla Decker is President/CEO of District Government Employees Federal Credit Union (DGEFCU) in Washington, D.C. During her 15-year tenure leading DGEFCU, Carla has advanced the credit union’s mission of financial inclusion by serving the unbanked, low income, ethnic populations in the District; and attaining the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution designation.
Carla is co-founder of the Network of Latino Credit Unions & Professionals (NLCUP). She serves on the boards of the Inclusiv (Inclusiv), and the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA/CLUSA). She is an International Credit Union Development Educator providing curriculum development and facilitation services to the Caribbean region’s leadership development program.
Carla’s undergraduate studies were in Finance. Her Master’s degree is in International Commerce & Politics from George Mason University in Virginia.
As CEO of Coopera, Miriam promotes Coopera’s approach to serving Hispanics throughout the credit union industry. This comprehensive approach has helped credit unions and credit union industry organizations position themselves for long- term growth by serving Hispanics. The idea of a “double bottom line,” where sustainable growth strategies are synonymous with social value is central to Coopera’s mission of partnering with people, businesses, and communities. Miriam also serves as Senior Vice President for Affiliates Management Company, Coopera's parent company.
Miriam has significant experience working in the financial services industry, having worked with State Farm Insurance Companies and John Deere Financial. Miriam is a 2012 recipient of the World Council of Credit Union’s Young Credit Union People
Program (WYCUP) award, a former board member of the national Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals and a member of the World Council of Credit Union’s Global Women’s Leadership Network. She has also been active with many local organizations that serve the Latino community.
Miriam is a 2010-2011 Leadership Iowa class graduate and a Des Moines New Leaders Council fellow. Miriam has also taught English as a Second Language classes to first generation immigrants as an Adjunct Professor for Des Moines Area Community College. She earned her bachelor’s degree with honors from Iowa State University and is a graduate of the Leading Change and Organizational Renewal executive education program at Harvard Business School. Miriam resides in Des Moines, Iowa.
Have you ever uttered the phrase, ‘hindsight is 20/20’ in response to an unexpected result within your work? As a financial industry consulting expert, Tony Ferris enjoys guiding C-Suite professionals to identify the unseen, implement the difficult, and create sustainable solutions to maximize results. His clients describe him as a “revolutionist.” They appreciate that unlike other consultants, he doesn’t just offer ideas but honest (often hard to hear) truths and solutions by truly partnering with leaders and organizations alike to bring about positive disruption in the status quo, creating opportunities for competitive advantage, rather than merely reacting to what others in the industry are doing.
Blending over 20 years of experience working with financial institutions and his natural change-embracing skills, Tony helps leaders truly evolve in the way they think, strategize, and govern. To that end, Tony and the Rochdale Paragon Group has led the charge on defining the business processes around governance, risk and assurance disciplines to formalize how organizations make better decisions and focus on the critical tasks. The Rochdale Paragon Group provides the culture and framework to both preserve and create organizational value by de-biasing decisions, delivering focus on the most important opportunities and obstacles, and assuring compliance while minimizing administrative expense.
Patrick Flynn joined the credit union movement in 2007 after graduating from Texas Christian University with a degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management from the Neely School of Business. He started his career as a Marketing Intern at People’s Trust Federal Credit Union until he was hired on full-time shortly thereafter. In January 2010, Flynn was selected by the executive management team as the inaugural People’s Trust Happy Un-Banker (employee) of the Year for 2009. In his years at People’s Trust, through various promotions, Flynn worked his way up the ranks from intern to now serving as the Marketing Manager. During his tenure at People’s Trust, Flynn’s marketing efforts have helped the credit union grow from $285 million in assets to over $500 million. He has served on the People’s Trust Foundation board for over nine years in numerous capacities including staff member, board member, Board Chair, and now serves as the Executive Director. Flynn recently received his CUDE designation from the National Credit Union Foundation in January 2016.
Paul Grinde is a proven team leader with a special passion of providing financial services for those of low wealth and the unbanked. He recognizes that to accomplish that in the long run the entire organization must be financially strong and efficient. Starting in 1996 through 2012 as Executive Vice President, Paul was responsible for all retail functions of CoVantage Credit Union, which grew rapidly to $1 Billion. Implementation of work flows, efficient procedures, strong controls, and an attitude of treating the members in a friendly and fair manner delivered results. CoVantage has lower loan losses, cost of operations, and fees while maintaining a strong profit margin after returning $1.5 million in interest rebate and savings bonus annually. His prior banking experience as a community banker and a commercial lender and head of retail operations as part of a large commercial bank gave him the foundation to work successfully with a strong team. Paul’s duties are now devoted to Community
Development managing Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Low income programs of the credit union. He is responsible for obtaining and maintaining certification, identification of grant or partnership opportunities, grant applications, execution of the approved programs, and grant reporting. Paul recognizes that for the credit union to reach its full potential it is important to be connected with other Credit Union Leaders throughout the state and nation. Many of the programs implemented at the credit union are the result of collaboration with his friends in credit unions, Cuna and Inclusiv. A presenter at State and National Conventions and on an FDIC committee on economic inclusion allows Paul to interact with many of his peers. He is on the Board of Directors of the Inclusiv. Locally he is the President of Habitat for Humanity of Langlade County and a member of the Antigo Optimist Club. In Athens, he organized an investment group in a matter of days to buy property that could be developed into the city’s industrial park.
Paul is a Graduate of University of Wisconsin – Platteville, WBA Commercial Lending School, Prochnow Graduate School of Banking, and the Dale Carnegie Course.
Karim Habib is Director of Lending Solutions with CUNA Mutual Group. In this role he is responsible for providing leadership and specialized knowledge of the Lender Development Program and is responsible for coaching, training and mentoring lending protection mangers and sales managers within the program. Karim is also part of the National LDP team which is accountable for achieving critical success factors related to credit union strategic objectives, growth and penetration. He also ensures that CUNA Mutual Group’s lending expertise is fully leveraged to support credit unions and their members.
Prior to joining CUNAsymple_column size="one-fourth" position="first"]Mutual Group in 2005, Karim brought with him more than 20 years of Lending, sales and service experience from the Canadian Banking and credit union marketplace. He also spent 4 years as a senior account manager with CUMIS Ltd. primarily training credit union lending staff to utilize the Lender Development Program to help close more loans, increase credit union non-interest income, increase cross-sales of credit union products and services and market effectively across all channels to strengthen member relationships. Karim brings numerous years of lending experience in the financial services industry and has won many sales and service awards for his commitment, dedication and passion for providing superior customer service.
Karim studied financial accounting at Langara College in Canada and attends Cardinal Stritch University where he achieved his Associate’s degree in Business Administration, Bachelor’s degree in Science of Business Administration and recently received his Master’s degree in the Science of Business Administration.
Vicki Hoehn is Vice President – Community Engagement with Royal Credit Union and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Hoehn has been with Royal Credit Union since 1981. As Vice President – Community Engagement, Vicki’s primary duties include budgeting, strategic planning, developing awareness and building relationships with community groups and organizations, team building, financial literacy, philanthropy and public relations. Hoehn is the founder of Royal Credit Union’s School Site program that earned the Wisconsin’s Governor’s Financial Literacy Legacy Award.
Hoehn serves on the board of directors for Clear Vision Eau Claire Inc., North Barstow Medical Business Improvement District (BID), Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. (DECI) as chair, Confluence Council, Inc. as chair and the Chippewa Valley Museum Foundation. She previously served on the Board of Directors for United Way of Greater Chippewa Valley, Momentum West, Friends of Sacred Heart Hospital, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Wisconsin.
Vicki’s honors and awards include: United Way Keystone Award, Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce Athena Award, UW-Eau Claire Center for Service Learning - David G. Anderson Community Service Award, Woman of Courage, Confidence, and Character Award from the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, Big Brothers Big Sisters Making a Difference Award and the Eau Claire Community Foundation’s Children’s Legacy Luncheon Outstanding Achievement Award.
Judd Levy began his career in affordable housing at the New Jersey Mortgage Agency. He introduced the state’s first home improvement loan program and developed the country’s first tax-exempt single family mortgage pass-through security. In 1978 he started a Housing Finance Department at Merrill Lynch that became the leading underwriter of tax-exempt housing bonds in the country. Levy was responsible for a number of innovative products including the development of the Growing Equity Mortgage a mortgage product that was adopted by a number of state HFAs and Fannie Mae.
In 1997 Mr. Levy developed a unique financing program for Habitat for Humanity International (Habitat) that gave local affiliates the ability to securitize their zero coupon mortgages. These securitizations have provided over $150 million for more than 200 Habitat affiliates across the country. In 1999 he created the Community Development Trust, (CDT) the country’s first Real Estate Investment Trust devoted to providing debt and equity capital for community development projects, primarily in affordable housing. Over the next ten years CDT raised $120 million in equity capital and provided over $1 billion in financing for tax-credit projects.
Mr. Levy served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Low Income Investment Fund and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Enterprise Community Investment. From 2006-2011 he served as Chairman of the Board of the State of New York Mortgage Agency and the New York Housing Finance Agency. Mr. Levy is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in New York City with his wife Susan.
Margaret Libby is the Founding Executive Director of MyPath, a national nonprofit that promotes upward economic mobility for low-income working youth. Since her start in January 2007, Libby has led MyPath’s pioneering work to demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating banking, saving and credit-building into youth employment settings. Under her leadership, MyPath launched MyPath Savings, the nation’s first model to integrate banking, saving and peer support directly into youth employment settings, and MyPath Credit, the nation’s first youth-focused credit- building model. MyPath Savings is the only rigorously tested and proven youth financial capability model in the nation, and has supported low-income working youth to save over $1.5 million. Libby also launched MyPath Advocates, a model that supports low-income youth to advocate for financial inclusion around campaigns of their own choosing to bring youth voices into the dialogue, the only program of its kind in the nation. MyPath Advocates have engaged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Treasury on youth financial inclusion issues, illuminating the barriers youth face in accessing banking.
The Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and Philadelphia, as well as the Journal of Consumer Affairs and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have all published MyPath outcomes and best practices. MyPath has initiatives running in six cities through fifty-five partner sites, reaching 4,500+ low-income working youth with banking, saving and credit-building opportunities. Libby is a field leader and expert on youth financial capability strategy design, outcomes measurement, peer-to-peer approaches, youth financial products, and youth engagement strategy. Libby has a BA from Brown University and a MSW from U.C. Berkeley.
Mark is the Senior Program Manager at the National Credit Union Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation staff in 2015, Mark worked as a Field Coach with the Foundation’s REAL Solutions Program for several years.
Mark has been a credit union member for 40 years and a credit union board director for 22 years. Prior to moving to the US from Australia he was the Deputy Chairman of Australian National Credit Union, then Australia’s largest credit union and the Volunteer & Resources Manager with the Australian Credit Union Foundation. He also served on the boards of two other cooperatives and the academic council of a business college.
Mark moved to the US twelve years ago and established himself as a credit union consultant specializing in program and product development, project management, strategic planning, housing & financial counseling and board governance. He has delivered more than 500 presentations to credit union events in 48 states, predominantly on issues relating to serving the underserved, growth strategies, board governance, credit union philosophy, and taxation.
For the last six years he has led a REAL Solutions initiative to train certified credit union financial counselors. He has trained over 1,650 credit union staff in 450 credit unions in 25 states. Mark has also recently developed an experiential learning program to help credit union members better plan for their retirement.
For much of the last 4 years, Mark has done extensive work helping credit unions learn how to make auto loans to members with low credit scores in a way that is good for the member and good for the credit union. He is currently working with 15 credit unions on a pilot program to test the effectiveness of data mining to identify members and potential members with low scores that could benefit from a credit union loan.
Mark has been facilitating strategic planning meetings for over 20 years and has a passion for assisting credit unions to develop a long-term vision and meaningful and measurable strategic plans and goals. Mark has also worked with several credit union boards assisting them to improve their governance standards.
Mark is a US and Australian Credit Union Development Educator. He has over 20 years of experience in managing not for profit organizations and he is an experienced consultant, trainer, facilitator and presenter.
James is the Manager of The Cooperative Trust at Filene Research Institute. The Cooperative Trust is a community of young people who work in credit unions and cooperatives founded by Filene, with over 800 members worldwide. He focuses on bringing sustainability and longevity of the Trust as well as increasing its profile as it moves into the next stages of development.
James' other area of focus at Filene is young adult research. Looking at the challenges that face credit unions when it comes to young adults as members, volunteers and employees.
Before joining Filene and the Trust, James was the head of marketing at Plane Saver Credit Union in London, one of the largest credit unions in the UK. Working on a variety of projects, in his 4 years at Plane Saver James helped grow membership by 25%, whilst completely rebranding the organisation and implementing a new strategic direction.
James holds a bachelors degree, with honours from St. Mary's College of the University of Surrey and, in his spare time, been spotted rowing crew as well as playing drums.
Gina G. McNeal is Border Federal Credit Union’s Director of Financial Education. Gina has been a HUD Certified Housing Counselor for the last 10 years. She has managed BFCU’s HUD Approved Counseling Agency providing financial education and financial counseling for first time homebuyers, homeowners in financial difficulty trying to avoid foreclosure and among others those with a goal in mind of improving their financial well-being. BFCU on an average assist about 450-500 clients in reaching their financial goal through budgeting, debt management, credit counseling, foreclosure prevention, etc. Gina has also managed and coordinated the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for the last 9 years. In the last five years close to 10,000 income tax returns have been prepared free of charge to those who need it the most.
Rich Miller currently serves as Vice President of Mortgage Originations for Suncoast Credit Union headquartered in Tampa, FL. Suncoast was founded in 1934 and has grown to become the largest state chartered credit union headquartered in Florida with just over $7.7 billion in assets and over 723,000 members throughout 21 counties. Rich joined Suncoast in August of 2015 and oversees all origination, processing, underwriting and closing functions of both the first and second mortgage departments with combined annual fundings of $700,000,000. Prior to joining Suncoast, Rich served as a Regional Sales Performance Manager in the retail mortgage division of Bank of America and National Builder Executive with JP Morgan Chase.
Rich served as President of The Mortgage Bankers Association of NJ in 2005 and earned the Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) Designation in 2007 from the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. He is also a published author of a book entitled “Make This the Day”, the story of his youngest son’s condition requiring a heart transplant in January of 2008. He received his under-graduate degree in 1994 and is currently pursuing his MBA.
Helen Godfrey Smith is president and chief executive officer of Shreveport Federal Credit Union, a Community Development Financial Institutions that serves the needs of small business owners. She’s been with Shreveport Federal C.U. since 1983 and the financial institution has grown to serve over 25,000 members with just over $106-million in assets, five branches in Louisiana (three in Shreveport, one in Grambling and one in Bastrop) and three branches in Mississippi (Marks, Clarksdale and Batesville) well as, two full service Business and Financial Empowerment Centers (Shreveport and Marks).
Ms. Quittman is the director of the Office of Financial Education of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role she is responsible for policy development and coordination related to promoting the financial decision making and well-being of Americans. She plays a lead role in coordinating the interagency Financial Literacy and Education Commission and supports the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. Other areas of responsibility include the mymoney.gov website and the National Financial Capability Challenge. Additionally, Ms. Quittman is the director of the U.S. Community Adjustment and Investment Program, which provides capital to small businesses that create and retain jobs in trade-impacted areas of the United States.
Previously, Ms. Quittman was the director of Community Programs of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role she focused on financial access in traditionally underserved communities in order to promote Americans’ financial empowerment, including the BankOn USA initiative and the Community Financial Access Pilot. She also oversaw research related to financial education, financial access, consumer lending and other related topics. In addition, Ms. Quittman was program manager at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), and worked nearly nine years in various positions at the CDFI Fund.
Samira Rajan has been CEO of Brooklyn Coop Federal Credit Union since Sept 2008 and Executive Director of the credit union's 501c3 affiliate, Grow Brooklyn since its founding in 2007. She has been with the credit union from its first year when she served as an Americorp*VISTA volunteer. After the year of service was complete, she joined as full-time staff in 2002 as Loan Officer and has taken on increasing levels of responsibility ever since. In 2010, Samira was recognized by Crain’s New York magazine as one of New York City’s top 40 business ‘rising stars’ under the age of 40, a testament to her leadership of the credit union during an extraordinarily difficult time for any financial institution. Her educational background includes a BA from Bryn Mawr College and an MPP from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Terry Ratigan leads fundraising efforts for Inclusiv and plays an important role in program development, training, technical assistance, managing Inclusiv’s Housing Counseling Network and Inclusiv’s advocacy work. As a member of the Inclusiv/Network consulting services team, he provides expertise on CDFI certification, recertification, grant writing, and strategic planning for CDCUs around the country. In 2008, Mr. Ratigan worked with Bill Myers to develop the Emerging Markets Review (EMR), an analytical tool that helps credit unions to grow by expanding services throughout their field of membership. In 2009 he developed a statistical random sampling methodology for target market analysis that has helped to double the number of CDFI certified credit unions. This breakthrough methodology also served as the basis for NCUA’s 2011 revision of the Final Rule on Low Income Designation and the 2012 CDFI Fund guidance on target market analysis for CDFI certification. Prior to joining Inclusiv, Terry worked in community development overseas as a senior manager for CARE in Bangladesh and Mozambique and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Silvia Rincon is Director, Office of the CEO, managing the CEO’s priorities and overseeing the credit union’s efforts in multiple areas, including member service, communications, and financial education. She started her career working as an account executive for one of the largest banks in Colombia, focused on the top tier local corporate business, and was the top sales executive two years in a row. She moved to United States in 2007 and resumed her career in the banking industry, working for different organizations, performing different roles until finding her true passion at the credit union world. She has been with Latino Credit Union since 2013, and has served various capacities, the most recent as Director of Communications and Service. She has a B.S. in Financial Engineering from Autonoma University in Colombia.
Ann Solomon is the Strategic Initiatives Manager at the Inclusiv. In that role, she leads design and implementation of innovative programs and products to increase the financial capability of low-income people through credit unions, including Inclusiv’s Pathways to Financial Empowerment initiative. Ms. Solomon also facilitates coordination of Inclusiv staff and resources to achieve organizational goals. Prior to joining Inclusiv, Ms. Solomon was a researcher in sustainable and responsible investing and previously developed affordable housing for low-income people in Brooklyn, NY. She currently sits on the Board of Directors at Fifth Avenue Committee and is a Community Board Member of the Open Meadows Foundation. Ms. Solomon holds a BA summa cum laude from Amherst College and a Master’s of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Randy C. Thompson, Ph.D. is the CEO and founder of TCT, Inc. He has consulted with Credit Unions, through TCT, for the past 28 years. He holds advanced degrees (Ph.D. and MS) in Finance, Statistics and Economics and taught graduate courses in statistics at several Universities in the western United States.
He has been a frequent speaker at League and Association meetings across the United States and has authored papers and articles for Credit Union trade journals and for the California/Nevada Credit Union League. He is the author of TCT Suite of products including risk based pricing, deposit pricing, Credit Migration, with ALLL, and the CostPro Earnings at Risk ALM Simulation Model. Dr. Thompson has delivered training on loan and deposit pricing, credit migration and ALLL to federal and state examiners in six western states. He was awarded the Kim Bannon Eternal Flame Award for service to credit unions in 2013.
Francisco de la Torre Galindo is the Consul General of Mexico in Dallas, Texas as of June 1st, 2016.
He previously served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad at Mexico’s Ministry of foreign Affairs, since June 1st, 2013 and has been a member of the Mexican Foreign Service since 1998.
He has served as Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry’s Directorate General for the Foreign Service and also as Director for South America at the Under- Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mr. de la Torre holds a JD from Mexico´s National Autonomous University (UNAM), and represented Mexico at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition organized by the International Law Students Association (ILSA) in Washington, D.C., and a Master’s Degree in Diplomatic Studies with a thesis on “Aspects of the Vote for Mexicans Abroad”.
He also received a diploma for mid-career diplomats in Jakarta where he was elected Valedictorian by the Foreign Ministry of Indonesia in 2009 and attended the seminar for diplomats in the Foreign Service Institute of Argentina where he graduated with outstanding qualification in 2010.
His diplomatic experience includes having been in charge of the Political and Economic Affairs, Cooperation and Protection for Mexican citizens abroad at the Mexican Embassies in Brazil and Argentina.
Throughout his career he has participated in seminars and related forums with international, diplomatic and consular issues in more than 25 cities in the United States, and Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, Venezuela, Great Britain , Ireland, Indonesia and Singapore.
Deirdre Silverman is a principal in South Danby Consultants, specializing in strategic planning, group facilitation, needs assessments, program design and evaluation, and grant proposals. She has provided consulting services for a variety of public and private organizations in the fields of asset building, financial services, housing, substance abuse, youth and mental health services.
Silverman retired from Alternatives Federal Credit Union, where she was the Director of Community Programs from 1997-2011. She was responsible for securing grant income and program-related investments to support the credit union’s community development programs and supervising those programs, which include Individual Development Accounts, microenterprise training and support, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, financial education and financial counseling.
Prior to her work at Alternatives, Silverman served as an administrator at several human service agencies in Ithaca, New York, focusing on mental health issues, housing for people with special needs and for the homeless. She also taught Sociology and Women’s Studies at Ithaca College, and has participated in research projects on health issues, women’s work, and asset building initiatives. Silverman has a B.A. in History from New York University, an M.A. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research, and pursued Ph.D. studies in Sociology at the City University of New York.
Suzanne Yashewski is the Senior Vice President, Regulatory Compliance Counsel for the Cornerstone Credit Union League. On staff as legal counsel since 2001, Suzanne advocates for credit unions at the state, regional, and national levels in both regulatory and legislative arenas. She also leads the League’s efforts in the operation of Information Central, a division of the League that provides credit unions a hotline to answer compliance questions, an e-newsletter on compliance and regulatory matters, a comprehensive online compliance manual, a website with compliance resources, and various training materials.
During her tenure at the League, Suzanne has obtained several certifications from CUNA including the Credit Union Compliance Expert certification as well as the Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Specialist certification. Suzanne is a frequent speaker on credit union compliance issues at conferences throughout the country. In addition, Suzanne and her compliance team have produced a series of training videos for credit unions on diverse topics such as the Bank Security Act (BSA), board governance, share insurance and employment discrimination.
Suzanne is a graduate of Purdue University and Indiana University School of Law and is a noted expert in credit union/banking law, with a background in employment law. In her spare time, Suzanne engages in endurance sports of all sorts, including Ironman distance triathlons, ultra-marathons, and mountain climbing.