Brian Branch, president and CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, will retire in July, WOCCU announced Thursday.
Branch has been with the World Council for 31 years and was promoted to his current position in 2011. He is one of the council’s longest-serving chief executives.
In more than three decades with the organization, Branch worked in 104 countries to help develop credit unions, conduct management training, help improve regulation and more. That includes having helped the movement gain a foothold in post-Soviet Russia, Poland and Romania, introducing Islamic-based credit unions in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and helping credit unions rebuild communities following natural disasters in Sri Lanka, Haiti and Puerto Rico.
Branch also helped establish the Global Women’s Leadership Network for women in the industry around the world. More recently, he helped
“There is no question we will miss Brian’s expertise and leadership going forward, but he has put us in a position to successfully move World Council forward into the future,” Rafal Matusiak, president of the WOCCU board of directors, said in the release.
The board has begun a search for Branch’s successor, who is expected to be onboarded by the time he steps down later this year.
