Have you ever uttered the phrase, ‘hindsight is 20/20’ in response to an unexpected result within your work? As a financial industry consulting expert, Tony Ferris enjoys guiding C-Suite professionals to identify the unseen, implement the difficult, and create sustainable solutions to maximize results. His clients describe him as a “revolutionist.” They appreciate that unlike other consultants, he doesn’t just offer ideas but honest (often hard to hear) truths and solutions by truly partnering with leaders and organizations alike to bring about positive disruption in the status quo, creating opportunities for competitive advantage, rather than merely reacting to what others in the industry are doing.

Blending over 20 years of experience working with financial institutions and his natural change-embracing skills, Tony helps leaders truly evolve in the way they think, strategize, and govern.  To that end, Tony and the Rochdale Paragon Group has led the charge on defining the business processes around governance, risk and assurance disciplines to formalize how organizations make better decisions and focus on the critical tasks. The Rochdale Paragon Group provides the culture and framework to both preserve and create organizational value by de-biasing decisions, delivering focus on the most important opportunities and obstacles, and assuring compliance while minimizing administrative expense.

Jeff has worked at The Rochdale Group (Rochdale) since 2006.  He has over 17 years of experience in the financial services arena. Prior to Rochdale, Jeff worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (FRB) where he participated in and led many district and system-wide initiatives in a variety of administrative and operational areas.  Jeff currently leads and participates in various client engagements, including strategic planning, enterprise risk management implementation and support and merger-related projects.  Jeff’s broad-based experience, analytical focus and passion for credit unions allow him to bring significant value to those he works with.

Jeff received a Bachelor of Science degree in both Management and Marketing, as well as a Master of Business Administration degree from Northwest Missouri State University.

James This is a nationally recognized consultant, facilitator and trainer in the areas of strategic planning, leadership development, interpersonal communication and marketing.  Jim is one of the principals of James L. This and Associates.  He is probably best known as a founding partner of The Paragon Group – one of the most respected consulting firms in the credit union industry.  Through these companies, Jim has helped credit unions for over twenty-five years.

Jim’s specialties include strategic planning, executive recruitment, leadership development and executive assessment.  He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and schools and one of the creators of the Volunteer Leadership Institute.  The Institute is the premiere source of continuing education for credit union volunteers.

Jim earned his BA from Wake Forest University and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.  He holds the title of Senior Professional in Human Resources from the Society for Human Resource Management.

Jim’s career has found him in three arenas—financial services, teaching and management consulting.  During his long association with the Washington State Employees Credit Union he held key positions as Marketing Manager and Executive Vice President.  He has taught at the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Permian Basin, St. Martin’s College, South Puget Sound Community College and The Evergreen State College.

Sally Dominguez is an expert in inclusive innovation, modern resilience, and strategizing for the Fourth Revolution. She coaches SONY in moonshot thinking, advises IKEA on sustainable resilience and future convergences, wrote a green hydrogen roadmap for the Inter America’s Development Bank, and has co-designed a hydrogen fuel cell mobile home. Sally specializes in activating an exponential (10X) mindset in others
An Inventor, Architect and Entrepreneur with 7 international product awards including an Australian Design Award, and a Top 10 Green Buildings Products (USA) award, Sally has been named one of Australia’s “50 for the Future” entrepreneurs in the USA. Her design work is held in the Powerhouse Museum (Australia) the V&A (London) and the Museum of New York, and she is an Ambassador for Good Design Australia. As part of her design innovation work* Sally invented a new plastic structure in rotomolded tanks, and a new plastic surface finish, and she continues to innovate in materials and systems thinking. Sally has judged innovation on Australian TV show The New Inventors, and hosted Australia’s Greatest Inventions, as well as podcast TheNextBillionCars.  Sally’s product and architectural work has been widely published, as has her writing and judging as a Car of the Year judge (and driver). Sally is passionate about ensuring that every person activates their creative thinking potential.
Sally’s book, EPIC Resilience, is a strategy for developing a creative resilience suitable for success in the Fourth Revolution. The EPIC corporate strategy addresses and strengthens culture and inclusive innovation. Sally’s innovation strategy, ADVENTUROUS THINKING, was developed as an education initiative in Australia, then a business strategy at Stanford, and is now used by forward-thinking organizations around the world including NASA, Sony, Roche and Citi. ADVENTUROUS THINKING updates design thinking with disruptive tools and the practices of multiple intelligence and frugal innovation. ADVENTUROUS THINKING is a proactive strategy that uses Five Lenses - Negative Space, Sideways, Backwards, ReThinking and Parkour - to alternately converge and proliferate thinking.
As Program Director for Innovation, Strategy and Design at Singularity University in 2019 Sally wrote several future reports examining the role of trust, transparency, and resilience in the next ten years. She constructed Diversity and Inclusion workshops, and bottom-up inclusive corporate innovation scaffolding remains one of her specialties. Sally has worked most recently in the innovation areas of green hydrogen, electric transportation, future cities, and the convergence of work, transport, home and decentralized green energy.
Sally’s passion is in inspiring optimism and creative confidence in others. Her purpose is to help every human creatively embrace the change and uncertainty of the Fourth Revolution.

Brian Knight was appointed President and CEO on January 1, 2022. He joined NASCUS in 1998 and has served as NASCUS’ general counsel since 2007. In 2014, Mr. Knight was also named executive vice president. In addition to managing NASCUS’ legal affairs, Mr. Knight oversees NASCUS’ legislative and regulatory analysis, policy development, advocacy, and compliance guidance. He also oversees NASCUS’ professional development department and Accreditation and State Programs department.
With an extensive background in both legislative and regulatory analyses and a comprehensive knowledge of the state and federal credit union regulatory system, Mr. Knight often represents NASCUS speaking at seminars, trade association meetings and conferences. Mr. Knight has testified before numerous state legislatures on behalf of state regulatory agencies and participated in industry strategic planning sessions.
In 2005, Mr. Knight developed a Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance conference for examiners and credit unions. Held in partnership with CUNA, the conference today remains the largest credit union specific BSA training in the country.
Mr. Knight earned his law degree from the College of William and Mary school of law. Prior, he earned a B.A in history and political science from Hope College. Mr. Knight is a member of the American Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar.

Before Carol Marx became the President/CEO for the Hawaii Credit Union League in April 2022, she led multiple mortgage and retail banking teams, spanning over 30 years.

Her passions in developing successful outcomes include:

• Coaching individual achievement
• Inspiring challenging advancement
• Discovering pain points to improve on
• Collaboration with internal and external stakeholders
• Creative solutions to grab market share

Carol managed teams at both Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank, the largest financial institutions in Hawaii. In addition, she ran Inter-Island Home Loans, a joint venture of Countrywide Home Loans and Stanford Carr Development.  She graduated from the University of Hawaii with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance.

With a strong sense of service to individuals, team members, corporations and communities, Carol served on multiple non-profit organizations in capacities including President for Hawaii HomeOwnership Center, Mortgage Bankers Association of Hawaii, Soroptimists International of Waikiki and the Kaimuki Lion’s Club. 

Having the combined experience of lending while working to put homebuyers into their first residence, Carol continues to network with the community to discuss opportunities to advance home ownership and financial education.  Born and raised in Hawaii, she has a strong sense of responsibility to helping the families remain home in the islands, despite the high cost of living.

Personal Bio:

Her hobbies include cooking, hosting friends and families for dinner, singing Karaoke and when possible, dancing hula with her adult daughters in Missoula, at the University of Montana.  Living in Kailua, Hawaii with her husband Paul, she loves a daily walk to the beach.

Esther L. George was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee from 2011 to 2023. Her Fed service spans more than 40 years including considerable experience as a bank supervisor, moving through the ranks from commissioned examiner to chief regulator.  In 2009, during the Great Financial Crisis, she served as the Federal Reserve’s acting director of Banking Supervision and Regulation in Washington D.C.

George was actively involved in the Federal Reserve’s work to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the nation’s payment system, including leading the effort to establish real-time retail payments known as the FedNow Service.  She hosted the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium.

As president and chief executive officer, she led a workforce of 2,100 Federal Reserve employees serving the seven states of the Tenth Federal Reserve District through the Bank’s headquarters in Kansas City and its branch offices in Denver, Oklahoma City and Omaha. Under her leadership, the Bank was known for developing high-performing leaders and employees in addition to developing a competency in technology services.

George currently serves as chair of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Board of Trustees in Kansas City. She earned her BS degree from Missouri Western State University and her MBA from the University Missouri-Kansas City. She is also a graduate of the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Tom Sakash is the Manager of CUNA’s Small Credit Union Initiatives. In his work leading small credit union support services for the national trade association, Sakash strives to identify and communicate the opportunities small credit unions can leverage to succeed in the financial services marketplace today.

Sakash is CUNA’s liaison to the CUNA Small Credit Union Committee, is a Board member for Madison Credit Union, a small credit union in Madison, Wis., and has led or directly supported multiple efforts to establish collaborative partnerships between credit unions across the country.

Byron Gangnes is UHERO Senior Research Fellow and Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He specializes in international macroeconomics and forecasting and is also a leading authority on the economy of Hawaii.

 Byron earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound and a Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held visiting appointments at several prestigious institutions and has been an affiliated researcher with the United Nations macroeconomic forecasting program.

He has written extensively on economic policy issues affecting the U.S. and Asian economies. Recent articles study the impact of aging on global patterns of trade and finance, the effect of COVID-19 on trade and the economy, and the implications of global value chain production arrangements.

For his numerous outreach activities, Byron was awarded the Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Award for Faculty Service to the Community. He is the recipient of a College of Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, and he is an alumni member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has served in volunteer leadership roles with academic, religious, and community organizations.

Byron and his wife, Hilary, now live in New Mexico. They have two adult daughters.

Pankaj has over 30 years of analytics, risk management, and financial services experience. He also served as the Chief Risk Officer for consumer businesses at GE Money UK. Back in the day when data analytics was still a bleeding-edge problem, he was one of the first people that started the Analytics CoE for GE in 1998. That section of the business grew to become the world’s largest analytics CoE under his leadership, generating over $240 Million of annual revenues.

A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Pankaj has been a regular speaker at various global events on innovations shaping the risk and fintech landscape. He founded Scienaptic in 2014, based on these very innovations. Through innovative AI tools, Scienaptic is tackling the problem of credit expansion across the globe. More than 110 financial institutions across banks, credit unions, fintech, and other lenders use its platform to constantly improve the quality of underwriting decisions. This enables them to say ‘yes’ to borrowers more often and faster.

Becky Reed is the CEO of Lone Star Credit Union in Dallas, Texas.  Becky has more than two decades of experience leading multiple areas in credit unions including retail operations, lending, back office operations and IT.  She has led game changing service improvements through the use of technology which landed Lone Star Credit Union the CUNA Technology Council Award for Excellence in Technology in 2019. Becky was also featured on the cover of CU Magazine in the Summer 2020 edition. Continuing to blaze a trail, Lone Star Credit Union launched the first Non-Custodial Crypto Exchange for credit union members in August 2022.  In addition, LSCU is piloting the use of Digital ID for onboarding while working with NCUA for clarifying guidance.     

Becky is the co-founder of the Credit Union Service Organization, PureIT CUSO and serves as its Board Chairman.  She is the Board Chairman of NACUSO, is the co-founder of the Corelation South East Users Group and serves on the Advisory Board for Corelation, Inc and Bankjoy.  She serves her local community by volunteering as the Treasurer for Ferguson Road Initiative in Far East Dallas.  She also serves as the President of BlockAdvocates, a non-profit dedicated to Crypto education for Credit Unions.  Helping credit unions collaborate and support each other is her passion.

In addition to her credit union expertise, Becky is a management coach, mentor, consultant, and published author. Becky graduated Summa Cum Laude from Concordia University in Austin, Texas with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. 

Frank J. Diekmann is Publisher and co-founder of CUToday.info, a digital news and collaboration platform that is now the #1 provider of organic reporting, opinion, analysis, video and other resources to credit unions than any other provider.  Mr. Diekmann has an extensive background in credit union industry reporting and editing. Prior to founding CUToday.info, Mr. Diekmann founded Credit Union Journal, and prior to that cofounded Credit Union Times.

Before covering credit unions, Mr. Diekmann covered the nation’s banking industry. He began his editorial career working as a sports reporter with the Cincinnati Post, before making the natural segue into credit unions.  Mr. Diekmann is a frequent speaker, having addressed CU meetings from Sydney to Prague and all of the U.S., and also regularly serves as a judge in various organizations’ marketing and awards competitions. He is the only journalist to ever graduate from the National Credit Union Foundation’s Development Education program, and is now certified as an International Credit Union Development Educator.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Diekmann is also the author of three books: Cathode Ray’s, The Bawl Game and The Flip Flop.

Byron Gangnes is UHERO Senior Research Fellow and Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He specializes in international macroeconomics and forecasting and is also a leading authority on the economy of Hawaii.

 Byron earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound and a Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held visiting appointments at several prestigious institutions and has been an affiliated researcher with the United Nations macroeconomic forecasting program.

He has written extensively on economic policy issues affecting the U.S. and Asian economies. Recent articles study the impact of aging on global patterns of trade and finance, the effect of COVID-19 on trade and the economy, and the implications of global value chain production arrangements.

For his numerous outreach activities, Byron was awarded the Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Award for Faculty Service to the Community. He is the recipient of a College of Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, and he is an alumni member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has served in volunteer leadership roles with academic, religious, and community organizations.

Byron and his wife, Hilary, now live in New Mexico. They have two adult daughters.

Dave Emery is the Founder member and Managing Partner of EFG and has more than 30 years of experience counseling both corporate and individual clients in virtually every aspect financial planning. For 20 of those years, his work has focused on nonprofit institutions with a primary emphasis on executive benefit planning.

Mr. Emery holds a Bachelor of Science degree from John Brown University where he was a two-time All American baseball player. He has completed graduate work at the College for Financial Planning where he received his CFP designation. He also completed Executive Development programs at Stanford University. He has been married to Marci Emery for over 40 years, and has two adult children; Cassidy and Lindsay.

Pankaj has over 30 years of analytics, risk management, and financial services experience. He also served as the Chief Risk Officer for consumer businesses at GE Money UK. Back in the day when data analytics was still a bleeding-edge problem, he was one of the first people that started the Analytics CoE for GE in 1998. That section of the business grew to become the world’s largest analytics CoE under his leadership, generating over $240 Million of annual revenues.

A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Pankaj has been a regular speaker at various global events on innovations shaping the risk and fintech landscape. He founded Scienaptic in 2014, based on these very innovations. Through innovative AI tools, Scienaptic is tackling the problem of credit expansion across the globe. More than 110 financial institutions across banks, credit unions, fintech, and other lenders use its platform to constantly improve the quality of underwriting decisions. This enables them to say ‘yes’ to borrowers more often and faster.