Gerrianne "Winky" Burks began her career as a teller in 1971.
Gerrianne “Winky” Burks said Monday she plans to retire at the end of next years after 40 years with Northwest Federal Credit Union in Herndon, Va., her last five as its CEO.
Her retirement from the $2.1 billion, 108,000-member Northwest CU, the credit union said, has been part of a transition plan and caps a career that Burks began as a teller in 1971. She also has been human resources manager, vice president of member services and chief operating officer before becoming president/CEO in 2008, succeeding Juri Valdov.
“I am very proud to have led Northwest successfully through the worst financial crisis of our time and in the past two years, when we achieved the best earnings performance in our organization’s history,” Burks said.
“I always planned that the next phase of my life would be spent enjoying my family and my grandchildren. I want to be able to spend more time with them and be part and parcel of their lives,” she said. “But there’s no doubt: leaving my Northwest Federal Credit Union family will be bittersweet.”
Burks also is on the boards of Northwest Financial LLC, Northwest Financial Group LLC and Potomac Business Services, as well as chairman of the Northwest Federal Credit Union Foundation and the Credit Unions Care Foundation of Virginia and a board member of CUES.
JMFA Executive Search Group is helping in the search for a new CEO, which the credit union said it hopes to name by the middle of 2012.
