From coast to coast, credit unions announced new executivepromotions and appointments. A couple of credit union professionalsalso were honored for career achievements.

EAST

MichaelWolfe (pictured at left) was appointed vice presidentof lending at the $409 million Belco Community CreditUnion in Harrisburg, Pa. He joined Belco in 2006 as abusiness lending manager and worked in financial services for morethan 20 years.

The $258 million University Credit Union inOrono, Maine, announced the promotions of four executives:Deb White-Rideout was promoted to senior vicepresident of operations and human resources from vice president ofoperations and human resources; Renee Ouellettewas promoted to senior vice president of finance and technologyfrom vice present of finance and technology; AprilGleason was promoted to vice president of lending fromassistant vice president of lending and EileenByram was promoted to vice president of risk managementfrom assistant vice president.

The foundation of the $18 billion Pentagon FederalCredit Union in Alexandria, Va., hired MarkSmith as program director and Molly Scharas vice president of development and communications. Smithpreviously served as executive director of Blue Star Families, amilitary non-profit organization. Schar previously held posts withthe American Red Cross, the World Council of Credit Unionsand the NCUA.

MIDWEST

FaithTholkes, director of mortgage sales of the $579 millionIdeal Credit Union in Woodbury, Minn., was namedsuper mortgage professional for 2014 by Mpls.St.Paulmagazine and Twin Cities Business magazine. Tholkes,pictured at left, was the only credit union representative on thelist. Tholkes started her career with Ideal CU in 1996. She joinedthe mortgage department in 1998 and was promoted to director ofmortgage sales last year.

The $75 million Hopewell Federal Credit Unionin Heath, Ohio hired Shawna Miller as a branchmanager. She most recently served as a branch manager of BremenBank in Pataskala.

Kylie Svorec was appointed to the position ofbranch manager for the $1.7 billion United Federal CreditUnion. Svorec previously worked as an assistant branchmanager for the St. Joseph, Mich.-based cooperative. Her priorfinancial industry experience includes member service advisor andteller position at UFCU.

SOUTH

The $8.1billion Security Service Federal Credit Union inSan Antonio appointed BrandyRalston-Lint (pictured at left) as vice president ofpublic relations. She previously served as a public relationsmanager for the Children's Hospital in San Antonio and worked as atelevision reporter in Lubbock and San Antonio.

The $194 million Cy-Fair Federal Credit Unionin Houston hired Kenneth Jackson to lead itsbusiness development operations. Most recently, he served asa project manager for the Cy-Fair Independent School District.

WEST

Paul Gephart was appointed chief financialofficer for the $227 million Icon CreditUnion in Boise, Idaho. He previously served asdirector of finance at Home Federal Bank in Nampa. Gephart alsoworked as a controller for Merchants & Southern Bank and chieffinancial officer for Community National Bancorp.

TeresaFreeborn president/CEO of the $974 million XceedFinancial Credit Union in El Segundo, Calif., was honoredfor her personal career achievements and her contributions to thesuccess of other women in business as part of the 11th annualStevie Awards for Women in Business. Freeborn, shown at left,received two gold Stevie awards in the mentor or coach of the yearcategory and the female executive of the year category. She alsoreceived a silver Stevie award in the woman of the year category.The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are global honors forfemale entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizationsthey run.

The $1.1 billion Orange County's Credit Unionin Santa Ana, Calif., announced the appointments of ZaheedKhakoo as branch manager, DonaldCarazo as assistant vice president of collections andCarmela Hurley as card services manager.Khakoo most recently worked for JPMorgan Chase as a privateclient banker. Carazo holds more than 12 years of collectionsexperience and worked for Carrington Property Services and the $718million Altura Credit Union in Riverside,Calif. Hurley has spent more than 20 years in the paymentindustry including at a major card processor, other credit unions,and the e-commerce division of a major retailer.

TRADES

NAFCU appointed CatherineSafady as its new vice president of membership and sales.Prior to joining NAFCU, Safady worked at the InternationalAcademy-Amman, founded by Queen Rania Al Abdullah in Amman, Jordan.She also worked as vice president of marketing for Tree Top Kids, aspecialty retail store, and as director of advertising and businessdevelopment at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the PerformingArts.

VENDORS

Michigan Business Connection announcedMark R. Terry will retire from the Ann Arbor-basedCUSO on Dec. 31. He began working at MBC in January 2005 and wascredited with being a major contributor to the company'sgrowth.

Patricia Hamilton, with more than 30 years ofmortgage industry experience, joined the StoneHillGroup in Atlanta as a business developmentmanager. Most recently, Hamilton managed sales in the westernterritory for HomeBridge Funding, a correspondent lender. TheShoneHill Group is a national provider of quality control, duediligence, and mortgage fulfillment solutions for banks and creditunions.