ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA this afternoon appointed Elizabeth Whitehead, an executive in its Northeast Region One, as the new director for its west coast Region Five, home to some of the biggest problem credit unions.
Whitehead, who joined NCUA as an examiner in 1988, is one of the few top NCUA executives with credit union experience, joining the agency from Hurlbut Employees FCU, in North Lee, Mass., where she served as CEO.
The Tempe, Ariz.-based Region Five office oversees 480 federal credit unions in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming and Guam-but not California or Nevada. Those two troubled "Sand States" have been moved to supervisory units in Regions Two and One under a reallocation of resources by NCUA.
Whitehead replaces Jane Walters, who has served as acting Regional Director in Region Five since March 2009 and who now returns to her position as director of MidAtlantic Region Two.
