Two incumbents and a former director are among four people recommended by an N.C State Employees’ Credit Union nominating committee to serve on the institution’s 11-member governing board.
Incumbents Chris Ayers and Ben McLaworn received recommendations, along with Thomas Parrish and Nneamaka “Amaka” Flynn. Ayers is a former SECU board chair and is executive director of the N.C. Public Staff, an independent agency that works with the N.C. Utilities Commission. He has been on the board since 2016.
Parrish is a former SECU director who was defeated in the 2023 SECU board election.
Current directors Mona Moon and Jennifer Haygood are leaving the board. Moon is the current chair, while Haygood is secretary-treasurer.
Elections will conclude at the Oct. 14 annual meeting of SECU, the second-largest U.S. credit union with more than $50 billion in assets. It’s a dominant retail banking force in North Carolina with 2.8 million members, offices in all 100 counties and capital reserves topping $6 billion.
The group’s past two board elections have been contested by members seeking board seats without support of the credit union’s leadership. Three directors without such backing won seats in 2023, while four others were defeated last year.
There isn’t likely to be a contested election this year because several interested candidates missed the filing deadline due to changes in the election calendar, says Jim Blaine, a former SECU CEO. He publishes a blog that has criticized SECU leaders for lack of transparency and various policy shifts. SECU official declined to say how many applications were received by the nominating committee. Nominees aren’t allowed to bypass the committee under the credit union’s bylaws.
Blaine, who led SECU from 1979 to 2015, in recent years promoted director candidates who did not agree with some credit union policies. State Administrator of Credit Unions Kristina Ray has turned down Blaine’s requests to block SECU from making election procedure changes without what he believes is enough notice and input from the credit union’s members
Blaine has also questioned SECU’s decision to bar members from asking questions during the annual meeting, a move instituted last year. Members were allowed to submit questions in advance, which CEO Leigh Brady answered at the meeting.
Asked about meeting procedures, a spokeswoman said details about the format will be published on Aug. 29.
David Mildenberg is editor of Business North Carolina. Reach him at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.