Washington State Employees CU Hires Former State Official to Oversee Investments

OLYMPIA, Wash. – To oversee its funding and investments, Washington State Employees Credit Union sought out a former senior state official. The $1 billion credit union has hired Wayne Kawakami as its new vice president of funding and investments, a newly-created position, the CU said. Kawakami previously served as a senior budget assistant to former Gov. Gary Locke and Gov. Christine Gregoire at the state’s Office of Financial Management. He has 15 years of experience as a fiscal analyst and senior budget manager for Washington state agencies and the state legislature after beginning his career as a Boeing Company budget analyst. Kawakami will oversee WSECU’s financial management functions, including fund acquisitions, deposit portfolio pricing and investment management. The credit union also hired Tony Hildesheim as its assistant vice president of enterprise systems in the IT division. His areas of management will include the IT help desk, networking, disaster recovery planning, and IT security. With more than 133,000 members, WSECU is the second largest CU in the state.