CO-OP Financial Services: Of you for you

Stan Hollen has dedicated his entire professional career to the credit union movement. For 33 years, beginning when he was elected to a credit union board of directors at age 19, Hollen has crafted a career -- on the state and national levels -- in which he's focused on developing innovative products and services to help credit unions serve their members and compete in the financial services market.

Born in Illinois, Hollen attended Eastern Illinois University, where he received his bachelor's and master's in business administration.

After more than a decade as a vice president with the Construction Equipment Federal Credit Union (1973 - '84) in Peoria, Ill., he moved west to become president and CEO of The Golden 1 Credit Union. During his tenure (1984 - 2002), the Sacramento, Calif., organization blossomed from $295 million in assets and nine branches to $4 billion in assets and 65 branches. By the time he left The Golden 1, the credit union ranked No. 1 in California and No. 5 nationally, and 13 execs from his management team had become credit union CEOs around the country.

In September 2002, Hollen was named president and CEO of Liberty, a leading provider of a credit union-focused check printing, payment systems, marketing and technology solution provider. The Mounds View, Minn., company, which partners with more than 5,000 credit unions, was purchased by the Harland Company in early 2005. Following more than three decades in the credit union world, Hollen assumed the CEO/president role with CO-OP Network in June 2005.

Hollen has served in national leadership roles on numerous credit union boards and committees, including:

• National Director - Credit Union National Association
• Chair, Payment Systems Committee - Credit Union National Association
• Board member - Banking Industry Technology Secretariat Council
• Board member - Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (Wescorp)
• Board member - Check Payments Systems Association

Honors/Awards include:

• California Credit Union League's Leo H. Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award
• Inducted into Credit Union Executive Society (CUES) Hall of Fame

With more than 35 years experience in financial services, technology, operations, product management, business and strategic planning, and sales and customer service, Jim Hanisch leads the Network's technology, development and strategic planning division.

Hanisch, an Iowa native, arrived at CO-OP Network in 2000 after serving as Vice President, Application Service Provider Services, for Omaha, Nebraska-based ACI Worldwide. His focus ranged from traditional ATM/POS to e-commerce, wireless commerce, smart card and Internet-based services. He additionally served as Vice President, Product Management and Strategic Planning for USPI, a start-up processing venture funded in part by ACI. Early in his career Hanisch spent two years at ACI, where he was responsible for Base24 product management.

Before USPI, Hanisch spent 11 years at A.O. Smith/Deluxe Data Systems/eFunds (now FIS), holding positions in technology development, product management and general management. During his tenure at Deluxe, he worked closely with CO-OP Network, ultimately leading the business unit responsible for the CO-OP Network relationship.

Hanisch began his career as a management trainee at Norwest Bank (now Wells Fargo) in Des Moines. He held various positions in operations and EFT systems, with expertise in cash management products, on-line teller systems and EFT. He was involved in the formation of several of the early mid-western EFT networks in the 1970s and was the first president of the Diebold TABS Advisory Group.

Hanisch has served or serves on the boards of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, RewardsNow, Early Warning Services, ResolverGroup and CU ATM Services. He currently lives in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with his wife, Barb.

Kimberly Hester, a Cal Poly Pomona graduate, began her executive career at LAPCU in 1988, where she ultimately became CEO. In 1995, she moved to Texas-based Community Credit Union (CCU) and in 2001 received her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas. During almost a decade in "The Lone Star State", Hester helped grow CCU from five to 32 locations and increased assets to $1.3 billion.

Kimberly, her husband and children reside in California where she manages the CO-OP Financial Services eFunds relationship, including all network conversions and implementations.

Eric Porter has over two decades of successful sales, marketing and management experience in the financial services sector. He currently holds the position of Executive Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, and is serving his 11th year with the organization.

Eric continues to spearhead CO-OP Financial Services highly successful growth and retention strategies and has established and developed high performance National Sales and Client Retention Teams. His experience is well matched with the company's corporate strategy to grow and serve credit unions on a national scale.

Prior to joining CO-OP Financial services, Mr. Porter held the position of General Manager for U.S. Processing, Inc., where he directed sales for the EFT industry. He has managed large-scale projects, support services and has consulted with many leading financial institutions. His previous experience includes senior positions at eFunds Corp, Vice President, Domestic Sales for Digital Systems, Director, National Accounts for Diebold, Inc. and Divisional Manager of GTE's Educational Network.

A native of the Chicago area, Eric and his wife currently reside in the Seattle, WA area.

In July 2006 Kari joined CO-OP Financial Service's executive team as the Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Kari's main focus is on financial security, as well as the strategic, organic and future financial growth and development of CO-OP Financial Services. She is also responsible for the advancement and management of CO-OP's accounting, finance and information technology teams.

Kari possesses over 15 years of experience, including a stint as CO-OP's Vice President Controller. In this role Kari streamlined businesses by creating efficiencies in statement reporting, budget planning and forecasting. She has also held various leadership roles at Western National Group and USIWest in Irvine, Calif., and began her career at Frankeberger & Company in 1991 as a Support Staff Accountant. Kari is a certified public accountant and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration, with an academic achievement award, from Loyola Marymount University. She now resides in Corona, Calif. with her two daughters, Emma and Audrey.

Jill DeNiro who possesses more than 15 years of experience in the Human Resources industry was promoted to her current role as Vice President, Human Resources in April 2006. Since joining CO-OP Financial Services in 2003 she has received the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certificate and the Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) certificate.

Prior to joining CO-OP Financial Services, DeNiro held several Human Resources roles including Recruitment Manager for over 2,500 employees at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Colorado. She also served as Human Resources Manager for Team Rehab.

DeNiro, a Cal Poly Pomona grad, who is originally from Pittsburgh, Penn., currently resides in Orange County, CA with her two children.

Mark Chatfield, with more than 20 years of credit union industry experience, is the Chief Operating Officer of CO-OP Member Center, a subsidiary of CO-OP Financial Services, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chatfield joined CO-OP Financial Services in November 2009 from CUNA Mutual Group of Madison, Wis. Chatfield served as Vice President, Sales, with CUNA Mutual Group from February 2006 until this appointment. Prior to CUNA Mutual Group, Chatfield spent four years as Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer of Credit Union Resources, Inc. (Texas Credit Union League) of Dallas. In the two years before that, he was the owner of Professional Alternatives of Dallas, LLC, a professional services placement company.

Prior to CO-OP Shared Branching, he was Vice President/COO of Georgia Central Credit Union for nine years, helping build the corporate credit union to a more than $1 billion organization for Georgia credit unions. Beach has been involved in many aspects of credit union business in his 22 year tenure, including branch management, compliance, investments, cash management and now shared branching/Electronic Funds Transfer.

Additionally, Beach served several years as a credit union auditor for the Alabama Credit Union League's central district. Beach began his career in credit unions in Colorado after graduating with a B.S. in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Northern Colorado.

Sarah Canepa Bang is President of FSCC, LLC, a division of CO-OP Financial Services, and Chief Strategy Officer of CO-OP Shared Branching. Up until January 1, 2012, she had been the President & Chief Executive Officer of Financial Service Centers Cooperative, Inc. (FSCC) the international shared branch network, since 1999. During her tenure, FSCC has more than quadrupled in the number of credit unions, branches and states involved in shared branching. In that time, FSCC expanded traditional shared branching to five countries and expanded the technology to include full-service kiosks, mobile, call centers, disaster recovery, foreign currency exchange and remote deposit capture. In June 2007, FSCC successfully implemented credit union shared branching on Vcom^® kiosks in more than 2,200 7-Eleven^® stores nationwide. In 2011, FSCC and CO-OP FS successfully completed discussions for a merger of the two companies, bringing the U.S. credit union shared branching movement under one roof. The combined shared branching networks provide over 6,800 locations to members today.

Sarah is the in-studio expert on financial services technology for the Bravo channel’s 21st Century Business show. She serves on numerous boards, including the RMJ Foundation, the National Credit Unions for Kids Advisory Board, the Credit Union Miracle Day Board, the Digital Screenmedia Association Advisory Board and the Customer Engagement Technology World Advisory Board.

Sarah holds multiple degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.