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WEST
The $957 million, Los Angeles-based Water and Power Community Credit Union announced one new hire and one board appointment.
Daniel Baker was hired as chief lending officer. In his new role, Baker is an active member of the Executive Team and will lead many strategic initiatives including a modernization of WPCCU’s consumer lending operation, optimizing the real estate lending function, enhancing the member lending journey, and cultivating a culture of accountability and collaboration to achieve the credit union’s mission. Baker brings more than 15 years of experience working in a variety of financial services industries, including insurance, card services and banking. He most recently served as chief lending officer at a $1 billion credit union in Northern Michigan. Additionally, he has served as a board member for CUSOs and in the advisory committee capacity for several financial technology companies. He holds an MBA from Davenport University in Michigan.
Venest Henry-Evans was appointed chair of the Board. Henry-Evans has been a WPCCU volunteer for more than 35 years and previously held the Board chair position several times with the credit union. She also formally served the Credit Committee and Supervisory Committee. Henry-Evans was also an employee of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for 31 years, having worked in its real estate division.
Tiffani Vargas, EVP, COO for the $4.3 billion, Folsom, Calif.-based SAFE Credit Union, received a C-Suite award from the Sacramento Business Journal honoring her dedication to collaboration, visionary focus and strong leadership principles. Vargas was named EVP, COO at SAFE in March 2025. In this role, she has direct oversight over the teams that oversee member experience and provide services, benefits and outreach to SAFE’s 244,000 members. Since joining SAFE in 2018, Vargas has served in various executive leadership roles for lending. Before being named as COO, she served as chief lending officer and retail banking officer. Prior to that, she led SAFE’s commercial and mortgage lending teams. Vargas’ career in real estate and lending spans three decades. She also volunteered for over a decade as a cheer coach and served on the boards of First Tee – Greater Sacramento, the National Charity League and Folsom’s Tourism and Economic Development Corp.
Emelda Baca, SVP of consumer lending at the $3.6 billion, Phoenix-based Arizona Financial Credit Union, was named one of the Most Influential Women in Arizona for 2025 by AZ Business Magazine. She will be recognized alongside fellow honorees at a celebratory dinner hosted by AZ Big Media on Aug. 21. Under her leadership at Arizona Financial, Baca has introduced tools such as artificial intelligence underwriting and alternative data usage, helping more people across the credit spectrum qualify for the financial support they need. The Most Influential Women in Arizona award celebrates women leaders who are making a significant impact across Arizona’s business, nonprofit and public sectors.
The $4.3 billion, Folsom, Calif.-based SAFE Federal Credit Union hired Theresa Raleigh as vice president of human resources. Raleigh brings more than 35 years of experience in human resources leadership to the organization, having most recently served as vice president of HR at the $2.2 billion Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union in Lowell, Mass., where she oversaw employee engagement, talent development and organizational culture. In her new role, she will oversee all areas of HR at SAFE, including recruitment, retention, training and employee relations.
EAST
The $6.1 billion, Portsmouth, N.H.-based Service Credit Union hired Bob Hauser as assistant vice president of enterprise projects. Hauser brings more than two decades of experience in project and program management, data analytics, operations and enterprise-level transformation to the role. He previously served at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he played a pivotal role in the nationally visible launch of the FedNow instant payment platform. Hauser holds multiple professional certifications, including Project Management Professional and Six Sigma, and earned a data science certification from MIT. In his new role, he will oversee the strategic of high-priority programs, helping to guide Service CU through continued innovation and growth.
MIDWEST
The $4.2 billion, St. Joseph, Mich.-based United Federal Credit Union hired Malaythong “Molly” Phan as branch manager at the Holland North location in Holland, Mich. In her new role, Phan will be responsible for maintaining the performance of the branch, overseeing assets, and providing leadership and supervision to her team. She will lead the Holland North team in delivering exceptional service, driving deposit and loan growth, and fostering community engagement. Phan brings more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, having most recently served as a branch manager and mortgage performance analyst in the financial industry. She is also fluent in Laotian and Thai.
The $2.9 billion, Muskego, Wis.-based Corporate Central Credit Union promoted Kyle Gutierrez to systems engineer – automation and optimization. In his new role, Gutierrez will lead strategic initiatives focused on enhancing operational efficiency, streamlining internal processes and advancing automation efforts throughout the organization. He will also leverage Microsoft cloud solutions and automation platforms to reduce manual effort, improve scalability and enhance service delivery, as well as serve as a key resource in promoting the adoption and optimization of existing technologies, driving continuous improvement across all departments. Gutierrez joined Corporate Central in 2015 as an information technology technician and was promoted to associate systems engineer in 2019. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional.
VENDORS
Investifi, an embedded digital investing platform provider serving credit unions and community banks, hired Patrick McNally as chief product officer. In his new role, McNally will be responsible for overseeing vital aspects of InvestiFi’s business, including leading on the strategy, design and delivery of InvestiFi’s platform. He will leverage his extensive product management experience, focusing on deeply understanding InvestiFi’s product, features, functionality, roadmap and integrations, while also building strong cross-functional relationships. He will also be responsible for shaping the 2026 roadmap by mapping out key initiatives, team structure and budget. This will include improving data pipelines and analytics capabilities to support more data-driven decision-making as the company focuses on scale and adoption in the year ahead. McNally was previously director of data and analytics at the fintech company Exodus Movement Inc. Before that, he was a senior product manager at Elastic NC and head of product at Guidebook Inc.
Candescent, an Atlanta-based cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for U.S. financial institutions, announced two new hires.
John Garvey was hired as COO. In his new role, Gray will execute upon the company’s strategic priorities and lead the operations team, which is dedicated to delivering elevated experiences to Candescent’s 1,300 bank and credit union customers. Garvey brings more than 30 years of experience in advising and managing global financial institutions, professional services teams and technology organizations, with deep expertise across strategy, operations, technology and risk. Prior to joining Candescent, he served as global leader of PwC’s financial services industry vertical. He previously held positions as COO of Instinet, the world’s third largest stock exchange at the time, and CEO of Cybertrust, a cybersecurity managed services provider later sold to Verizon.
Peter Gray was hired as vice president of professional services and delivery. In his new role, he will further support the company’s operational and customer success. Gray brings deep operational leadership experience in the technology and financial services sectors, having most recently served as vice president of implementations at Transit Technologies. Prior to that, Gray was SVP of digital solutions at Fiserv, where he led implementation teams supporting banks and credit unions. He has also held senior leadership roles at Alkami Technology, ACI Worldwide, S1 and Metavante.
Please send your People news items to Natasha Chilingerian at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.
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