CU Professionals Tapped for Catalyst Councils

Catalyst Corporate FCU has named 24 credit union professionals to serve as members of its newly formed Catalyst Councils.“We were very pleased with the strong interest from our membership in joining a Catalyst Council,” said Dianne Addington, president/CEO of Catalyst Corporate.  “Settling on a slate of participants from a pool of highly qualified candidates proved challenging, but we were guided by our promise to ensure diversity—in asset size, geography and areas of expertise.”

Catalyst Corporate first announced its plans to form Catalyst Councils in September 2011 and began recruiting applicants during its fall conferences—the Economic Symposium and Economic Forum. Catalyst Councils are being established to channel member feedback into the corporate’s decision-making process and will meet four times annually to discuss products, service levels and strategic initiatives.

“Forming the Councils is one of many ways Catalyst will continue to be a member-driven organization,” said Addington. “It is imperative that we align our offerings with our members’ own strategic plans, and the Councils will help us achieve that goal by influencing the manner in which Catalyst uses its resources.”
Thus far, Catalyst Corporate has finalized participants for two of the three regional councils—the Eastern Regional Catalyst Council and the Central Regional Catalyst Council. The application process for the Western Regional Council has been extended to allow credit unions in that region to apply following the December announcement that Catalyst Corporate had won the bid to acquire the operations of Western Bridge Corporate FCU.

The Central Regional Catalyst Council members are:
• Lisa Coen, Comptroller, Oklahoma Employees CU, Oklahoma
• Kathi M. Gill, President/CEO, Neighbors FCU, Louisiana
• Karyn Gonyea, Vice President, Union Pacific of Arkansas, Arkansas
• Linda Jeffery, President/CEO, TruService Community FCU, Arkansas
• Jared Johnstone, Vice President/Deposit Operations & Business Services, Mountain America CU, Utah
• Keith Kearney, President/CEO, InvesTex CU, Texas
• Kim Troy Kyle, Chief Information Officer, Capital CU, Texas
• Derrick Peterson, Senior Vice President/CFO, Greater Texas FCU, Texas
• Drew Schmid, Executive Vice President/CFO, Randolph-Brooks FCU, Texas
• Andrea Stocks, COO, A+ FCU, Texas
• Marty Tressell, President/CEO, High Plains FCU, New Mexico
• Diane Ward, CFO, Bossier FCU, Louisiana

The Eastern Regional Catalyst Council members are:
• Brian Akin, President/CEO, North Georgia CU Georgia
• Tim Bridges, Executive Vice President/CFO, Associated CU, Georgia
• Sean Ferrell, AVP/Controller, LGE Community CU, Georgia
• Kevin Hill, Vice President/CFO, Five Star CU, Alabama
• Walter Hobby, CFO, CDC FCU, Georgia
• Beverly Knutsen, Senior Vice President, Augusta Metro FCU, Georgia
• Gary Kyle, CFO, Atlanta Postal CU, Georgia
• Maggie Martinez, President/CEO, South Florida FCU, Florida
• Keith Pritchard, CEO, Georgia-Florida United Methodist FCU, Georgia
• Issa Stephan, President/CEO, First Financial FCU, New Jersey
• Mary Svoboda, Senior Vice President/COO, Jax FCU, Florida
• Sam Whitehurst, President/CEO, Summit CU, North Carolina

“The credit union professionals who have been selected to participate on the Catalyst Councils are poised to make a real and lasting difference for Catalyst Corporate and its membership,” said Addington.

The deadline for applications to the Western Regional Catalyst Council is January 31, 2012.  An application can be found on the Western Bridge credit union region of the Catalyst Corporate website at http://www.catalystcorp.org/westernbridge.aspx. For more information, contact Amy Fuller, Vice President, Corporate Communications, at 770-476-9704, ext. 8361 or at afuller@catalystcorp.org.