Gerrianne “Winky” Burks said Monday she plans to retire at theend of next years after 40 years with Northwest Federal CreditUnion in Herndon, Va., her last five as its CEO.

Her retirement from the $2.1 billion, 108,000-member NorthwestCU, the credit union said, has been part of a transition plan andcaps a career that Burks began as a teller in 1971. She also hasbeen human resources manager, vice president of member services andchief operating officer before becoming president/CEO in 2008,succeeding Juri Valdov.

“I am very proud to have led Northwest successfully through theworst financial crisis of our time and in the past two years, whenwe achieved the best earnings performance in our organization'shistory,” Burks said.

“I always planned that the next phase of my life would be spentenjoying my family and my grandchildren. I want to be able to spendmore time with them and be part and parcel of their lives,” shesaid. “But there's no doubt: leaving my Northwest Federal CreditUnion family will be bittersweet.”

Burks also is on the boards of Northwest Financial LLC,Northwest Financial Group LLC and Potomac Business Services, aswell as chairman of the Northwest Federal Credit Union Foundation and the Credit UnionsCare Foundation of Virginia and a board member of CUES.

JMFA Executive Search Group is helping in the search for a newCEO, which the credit union said it hopes to name by the middle of2012.