CUNA Lending Council announced its 2020 award winners during the virtual conference on November 4, 2020. Click here to view the full awards presentation. 

“This is the way we acknowledge our best and brightest,” said Jim Block, CUNA Lending Council Chair and EVP/COO, BCU. “Lending Council members nominate their peers or their own internal credit union stars who deserve the spotlight.” 

Three lending professionals were named as recipients of individual awards: 

• Phil Greer Lifetime Achievement Award: Lloyd Gill, VP Lending and CEO – Retired, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Gill was selected by the CUNA Lending Council Executive Committee as someone who exemplifies leadership, passion and commitment to the credit union industry. 
• Rising Star Award: Tim Dunham, Vice President of Consumer Lending, Credit Union of America, Wichita, Kan. This award recognizes an up-and-coming leader in credit union lending. 
• Top Community Contributor Award: Casey Perkins, Vice President, Consumer Lending, Ent Credit Union, Colorado Springs, Colo. This award recognizes sharing and collaboration within the CUNA Lending Council Community. 

Excellence in Lending Awards, which honor credit unions which exemplify lending excellence by going above and beyond in their roles to serve members while maintaining sound credit union financials, went to: 

• Business Lending (Assets $500 million - $1 billion): ValleyStar Credit Union, Martinsville, Va. – for creating their own Payroll Protection Program (PPP) lookalike program to help their existing business members  
• Business Lending (Assets greater than $1 billion): Credit Union ONE, Ferndale, Mich. – for their Payroll Protection Program (PPP) that helped save over 3,000 jobs in their market  
• Consumer Lending (Assets $500 million - $1 billion): Thrivent Credit Union, Appleton, Wis. – for their “Automated underwriting,” digitally serving up and signing/disbursing loans in minutes  
• Consumer Lending (Assets $500 million - $1 billion): University Credit Union, Los Angeles – for partnering with Harland Clarke to create a “one click” loan pre-approval process  
• Consumer and Mortgage Lending (Assets greater than $1 billion): Gesa Credit Union, Richland, Wash. – for seeking an innovative solution to dramatically improve the speed and cost of mortgage and consumer loan processing with robotic process automation  
• Mortgage Lending (Assets less than $500 million): Star of Texas Credit Union, Austin, Texas – for creating an ITIN mortgage lending program that helped their members get away from “hard money” lenders 

For more information, visit cunacouncils.org.