Wendell“Bucky” Sebastian will retire on June 30 as executive directorof the National Credit Union Foundation.

Sebastian has served at NCUF for almost exactly three years,from May 2010, after serving as CEO at Tampa, Fla.'s GTE FCU, nowGTE Financial, for 20 years.

He has also been a key executive at NCUA and helped foundCallahan & Associates, a noted credit union consultingfirm.

Sebastian has also been involved in helping to lead the National Center for Member Trust, an effort to help memberswhose credit unions contemplate becoming banks organize to retaintheir credit union charter.

In his earliest financial service career he held the positiongeneral counsel of the Illinois Department of FinancialInstitutions.

“Bucky has done an outstanding job over the last three years indirecting the foundation to focus its efforts on financialeducation and a number of key initiatives to benefit the creditunion movement,” said CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney. “We will misshim and want to thank him for his many contributions to thefoundation as well as the CUNA system.” The NCUF's board chair,Floridacentral CU CEO Laida Garcia, announced she will appoint asearch committee to recruit for a successor.

“While we congratulate Bucky on his upcoming retirement, we alsoacknowledge the loss of an excellent leader, who will be greatlymissed,” Garcia said. Sebastian served as NCUF executive directorduring a period where the NCUF moved into some newdirections. Sebastian was at the helm as the NCUF re-assumedresponsibility for the Credit Union Development Education program, which has begun inthe NCUF.

He also helped oversee a shift in the foundation's grant making,moving away from funding more, smaller projects which mightinfluence a small number of credit unions to funding larger projects which focused on putting innovationsinto place that credit unions across the country might be able toreplicate in the future.