CU DIRECT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, BECU
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
Bob Child, the chief operating officer at CU Direct, oversees the company's finance, marketing and communications, training, and human resources functions. He is also a member of the organization's strategic planning team.
He has over 11 years' experience in the financial services industry, with expertise in developing and executing new best practice strategy functions and establishing program management offices.
Prior to joining CU Direct in 2012, Child held a number of executive positions, including:
Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Aviva
Chief of Staff, Allstate Insurance and Allstate Bank
Child holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from St. Xavier University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Secretary & Treasurer - President & CEO, Anheuser - Busch Employees' Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Chief Product Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
Brian Hendricks is the chief product officer at CU Direct. He is responsible for overseeing strategic planning, product development, software development, and implementation.
"My passion is working within cross-functional environments, bringing teams such as product, marketing, and sales together to deliver transformative solutions to credit unions and dealers. I really enjoy seeing our technology solutions in action and achieving results for our clients," says Hendricks.
Hendricks has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, working and collaborating with some of the largest credit union organizations across the country. His career began at Orange County's Credit Union, and he has remained committed to the industry since, serving in a deep diversification of disciplines including member experience, sales, lending, card services, technology, operations, and marketing.
Prior to joining CU Direct in 2014, he held several management positions, including:
Vice President of Strategy, Operations & Marketing at UMe Credit Union
Director of Brand Marketing for Credit Unions at Subcat Media
Marketing Executive at Harland Clarke
Branch Supervisor at Orange County's Credit Union
In 2017, Hendricks oversaw and launched CU Direct's Innovation Lab in Irvine, CA, as an environment dedicated to designing, prototyping, and developing transformative lending technology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice Chairperson - President & CEO, Patelco Credit Union
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Member of the Executive Team
Erin Wilson, General Counsel at CU Direct, oversees the legal, compliance and enterprise risk functions. She has over 20 years' experience in the financial services industry, with expertise in contracts, vendor oversight, litigation management, risk, and privacy matters. Prior to joining CU Direct in September 2018, Erin held several in-house legal positions, including the following:
Senior Vice-President, Associate General Counsel, Stearns Lending
Vice-President, Assistant General Counsel, First American Financial Corporation
Senior Counsel, ACC Capital Holdings
Erin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, Fullerton, and a Juris Doctor from Whittier Law School.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
Jeff Shood is the chief technology officer at CU Direct, leading software development, architecture, and engineering efforts for all the company's products.
Jeff has 20 years of experience in financial technology across multiple roles, including engineering, product, sales, and executive leadership. In 2005, Jeff founded Intuvo; a CRM platform for financial institutions that helps lenders better understand their customers and target their sales efforts. As CEO of Intuvo, Jeff led the product and development groups to create a platform used by over 100 financial institutions, including 25 of the top 50 credit union mortgage lenders.
Jeff joined CU Direct in 2015 with the successful acquisition of Intuvo by CU Direct. Jeff led the expansion of Intuvo into CU Direct's consumer lending products as well as launching CU Direct's business intelligence and embedded CRM groups.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chairman - President & CEO, Security Service Federal Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, Kinecta Federal Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, Summit Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Human Resources
- SVP, Human Resources
Laurel Levine is the senior vice president of human resources at CU Direct. Laurel has over 15 years of experience in employee relations, finance, and accounting. She began her career in human resources at THQ as the director of compensation and benefits. She continued her career working for companies such as TV Guide, Prospect Mortgage, and Loan Depot, where she played a pivotal role in redesigning and streamlining employee relations and compensation plans.
With Laurel's leadership at CU Direct, she has expanded employee relation initiatives to include programs such as employee resource groups and DEI initiatives to foster growth, development, and team building across the entire CU Direct organization.
Laurel is actively involved in the Society of Human Resource Managers Association and is a volunteer for the Ventura County Animal Shelter.
Laurel is a graduate of California Lutheran University with a degree in Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Ex Officio - President & CEO, Financial Partners Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
Neetu Bhagat has over 17 years of proven expertise in rapid growth environments, having worked in a variety of finance and accounting positions in both public and private organizations. Prior to joining CU Direct, Ms. Bhagat was the Corporate Controller at Ontellus, a privately held provider of data retrieval services for the insurance and legal claims industry. Prior to Ontellus, Ms. Bhagat was the Director of Finance at Allergan, a global publicly traded pharmaceutical company. Ms. Bhagat was an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, handling audits of large publicly traded and privately held corporations in the Southern California market before moving to the private sector. Ms. Bhagat is a licensed CPA (California), and has an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Delhi University, India.
Job Titles:
- Chief Revenue Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
Phil DuPree is the chief revenue officer at CU Direct. Phil leads the automotive vision and oversees all strategic planning, direction, and development of CU Direct's automotive solutions, encompassing both product and market expansion. He also oversees the sales division, spanning CU Direct's nationwide presence.
Phil has over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, including delivery of innovative technologies, e-commerce, and sales solutions.
Before joining the CU Direct team, DuPree held a number of management positions, including:
Executive Vice President, Autobytel
President, AutoUSA
Vice President of E-Commerce, AutoNation
DuPree holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting from Texas A&M University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Ex Officio - President & CEO, Mountain America Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, America First Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO, Canvas Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Executive Team
- President
Tony Boutelle is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CU Direct. Tony has over 30 years of credit union industry experience, beginning his career at the Colorado Credit Union League in 1985. He continued his career at the California Credit Union League in the beginning of 1987 and moved to CUNA Mutual Group in 1991, and he held executive positions at both companies. He returned to the California Credit Union League in 1994 to start CU Direct Corporation. He has built the network to include 1,130 credit unions that represent 48 million members and 15,000 auto dealers.
Under Tony's leadership, the company has grown into the nation's leading lending technology solutions and services provider for credit unions. Tony has successfully expanded the organization to include products such as the Origence Consumer Loan Origination System (LOS), CUDL Indirect Lending, CU Direct Connect (lending origination services), Origence Marketing and CRM, and comprehensive auto buying programs. In 2021, CU Direct helped credit unions fund $58 billion in new loans and over $390 billion since the company's inception.
Tony currently serves on the boards of Vero, Bonifii and the CHOC Foundation.
Tony graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor's of Business Administration.