The $730 million CFCU Community Credit Union of Ithaca, N.Y., named Lisa Whitaker, former head of the $208 million COMSTAR FCU in Maryland, as its new president/CEO effective Feb. 7.
Whitaker succeeds Robert Witty, veteran head of CFCU, who retired at yearend.
In a statement, James Place, chair of CFCU, cited Whitaker's "decade long track record of successfully overseeing a large credit union in the very competitive Washington, D.C. market."
COMSTAR, headquartered in Clarksburg/Frederick, said Vicki Johnston, vice president of finance, has become acting CEO while a search is under way for a permanent replacement.
COMSTAR lauded Whitaker, who has been with the CU since 1988, for her service the last nine years as CEO leading the CU "through a period of tremendous growth, to its present position as a financial institution with more than 20,000 members."
At CFCU, Place described Whitaker "as an experienced business executive with 29 years in the financial industry." She holds a master of business administration degree and is an advisory board chair of FCPS Academy of Finance.
The 57,000-member CFCU serves the upstate counties of Cortland and Tompkins and "has risen to be the number one residential mortgage lender in the market," the press statement said.
