This past week, seven credit unions hired or promoted employees,and one credit union elected a board chair. Plus, PSCU promotedthree employees.

EAST

The $193 First Capital Federal Credit Union inYork, Penn., hired one employee and promoted another.

Eric Deaner (pictured) was hired asmarketing and business development specialist. Deaner comes toFirst Capital from Forever Media, where he spent the last fiveyears doing marketing and advertising sales.

Dennis “Chip” Nace Jr. was promoted from memberservice officer to branch manager. Nace Jr. has been in thecustomer service industry for more than a decade. Before joiningFirst Capital as a member service officer in 2015, he was aninsurance agent with Liberty Mutual.

The $2.9 billion Tower Federal CreditUnion in Laurel, Md., hired Denise Popeas vice president of branch administration. Pope has more than 30years of experience in the financial services industry, primarilyin the branch network. As Tower's head of branchadministration, Pope will oversee the administration of Tower's 12community and four secure-access branches, which span four Marylandcounties. Pope is taking over for Peggy Stavely, who retired inJanuary after more than 50 years at Tower.

MIDWEST

The $3.5 billion Veridian Credit Union inWaterloo, Iowa, promoted Amela Cejvanovic toassistant to the president. Cejvanovic, a resident of Waterloo, hasworked at Veridian for 11 years. She was previously a productmarketing strategist. Cejvanovic has a degree in communicationstudies from the University of Northern Iowa, and she is avolunteer with Young Leaders in Action.

The $545 million Crane Credit Union in Odon,Ind.,promoted Matt Nekola to centralized lendingmanager. Nekola has 15 years of experience in the financialservices industry. He began his career as a small businessspecialist/licensed personal banker at Chase Bank. In October 2011,he became the branch manager at Crane's Bloomington location.

SOUTH

The $9.5 billion Security Service Federal CreditUnion in San Antonio, Texas, promoted GregReed to SVP of member service. He will be responsible forbranch operations, member experience and employee development inTexas, Colorado and Utah. Reed has served the credit union since2011 in the roles of vice president of member service for theMountain West Region. The $642 million Gulf Winds Federal CreditUnion in Pensacola, Fla., hired JoanneHyatt as SVP/chief lending officer. Hyatt has morethan 30 years of experience working in consumer and mortgagelending. In her new role, Hyatt will lead efforts to servemember's lending needs at Gulf Winds. She will work with her teamand the board of directors to develop strategies that align withthe credit union's mission and vision to best serve theirmembers.

The $2.1 billion Atlanta Postal Credit Union inAtlanta announced that Donald A. DeCinque waselected chairman of the board of directors. DeCinque began workingat the credit union in 1981. He worked for APCU for 36 years beforeretiring as president/CEO in August 2017. DeCinque succeeds MosesM. Spence, who stepped down from the position in January 2018 after17 years. Spence will continue to serve APCU on the board ofdirectors. Spence began his distinguished career with APCU inSeptember 1966. He worked his way up from sorting mail topresident/CEO from 1966 until December 2000.

The $410 Education First Federal Credit Unionin Beaumont, Texas, named Brandt Kuehne as its newCFO. Kuehne comes to Education First from the $269 million JordanCredit Union in Sandy, Utah, where he served as CFO. He wasresponsible for overseeing accounting, finance and back-officeoperations at the credit union. Kuehne was also responsible forreconciliations, budgets, reporting, financials, ALM and CRM at thecredit union.

CUSOs

PSCU in St. Petersburg, Fla., promoted threeemployees to join the CUSO's operational services leadershipteam.

Kimberly Barber was promoted to vicepresident of new business. In this role, Barber is responsible foronboarding new owners through conversions and startups, as well asonboarding existing owners with new credit and debit lines ofbusiness. Her background includes more than 20 years of experiencein the payments industry, and success stories backed by theseamless transition of owners from the sales process into ongoingoperational support.

Karen Postma was promoted to vicepresident of implementations. Her new responsibilities includeproject implementation for PSCU's strategic client base, along withoversight into all rewards, adaptive control, Payment Defender andstatements implementations. Postma's background includes nearly twodecades of first data processing experience, as well as fraudprevention and detection, card program parameter management andrisk management expertise.

Eric Brown was promoted to implementationquality manager. He is now responsible for leading project managersand support functions to drive PSCU's mission of serviceexcellence. Since coming on board at PSCU two years ago, Brown hasworked extensively with operations services and PSCU's owners toexecute strategic projects.

Please send your People news items to Tahira Hayes [email protected].