Richard Lie took over the helm of $928 million Los Angeles Federal Credit Union as scheduled, following the retirement of John Dea, the CU said Monday.
LAFCU, headquartered in Glendale, Calif., said Lie (pronounced “lee”) has served as its executive vice president and chief financial officer for more than 23 years. Lie has a total of 28 years’ experience working in credit unions.
John Dea, who had been LAFCU’s president and CEO for eight years after 15 years as executive vice president and chief operations officer, retired effective Feb. 5. Credit Union Journal
According to figures released Monday by LAFCU, the credit union has seen “tremendous growth and success” since Lie joined its executive team. In 1994, the credit union had $263 million in assets, its net worth (defined as members’ equity plus retained earnings) was $27 million. It had 31,000 members and had $155 million in loans. By the end of 2017, assets jumped to $928 million, net worth to $112 million, membership to 61,000 and loans to $695 million.
In a statement, Los Angeles FCU’s board of directors said Lie’s promotion to president from CFO, “will be a smooth one, due to his longevity at LAFCU, his partnership with the former president/CEO, and the board’s confidence in his leadership abilities.
“At LAFCU, Richard has been responsible for making sure our investments had strong yields, overseeing conversions to more efficient internal computer processing systems, the creation of an Asset Liability Committee, and managing the Accounting, Information Technology, Investment and Finance departments,” the credit union’s board said. “He has a B.S. in Business Administration (specializing in accounting) and an MBA in Financial Management.”
Lie said, “I look forward to continuing to work with the board of directors in my new capacity as president/CEO. Our goals are to continue to be our members’ financial source for life and to maintain and build on our strong financial position. We are doing very well financially and have maintained a capital level over 12%. This exceeds the level of 7% that is considered ‘well capitalized’ for a credit union. Members should think of us first when investing or borrowing. We have money to lend, have great low loan rates for vehicles, Visa credit cards, and real estate loans, and have many convenient ways with which members can access their accounts.”
