Xceed Financial Promotes Shams and Gascon

MEDIA CONTACT
Paris Chevalier
Chief Marketing Officer
310.607.2083 (phone)
pchevalier@xfcu.org
www.xfcu.org
XCEED FINANCIAL ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS FOR RAY SHAMS
AND BERTHA GASCON
New Roles Acknowledge Executives’ Achievements, Recognize Growing Importance of
Lending to Credit Union’s Future Success
El Segundo, Calif. (June 2015) – Xceed Financial Credit Union announced that it has promoted
its Chief Operating Officer Ray Shams to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer, and its Vice President of Lending Bertha Gascon to the position of Senior
Vice President of Lending and member of the Executive Management Team.
“The new title for Ray Shams reflects both the breadth of his current responsibilities at
the Credit Union, as well as the importance of his role in the future direction of our
organization,” said Xceed Financial President and Chief Executive Teresa Freeborn. “Bertha
Gascon’s promotion is also well-deserved, and acknowledges both her outstanding contributions
to our lending growth and the significant efficiencies we’ve implemented under her leadership.”
Shams, who joined the Xceed Financial team in 2013, has nearly three decades of finance
and banking experience. In the short time he’s been with the Credit Union, he has introduced a
host of strategies to enhance profitability and orchestrated new processes and efficiencies that
spurred the most dramatic lending growth in the institution’s history. He has been an Investment
Principal for a major national bank, and served several financial institutions as a Chief Lending
Officer, head of Commercial Banking, and head of Private Banking. He also counseled financial
institutions as Senior Managing Director for the management consulting firm The Affinity
Advisory Group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s of
Business Administration with a focus in supply chain management from the University of La
Verne in La Verne, California.
Bertha Gascon, who now takes on responsibility for all lending-related activity for Xceed
Financial, joined the Credit Union’s team in 2011. She is an expert at developing policies and
procedures, lending strategies, and best practices to streamline loan origination and servicing. A
respected industry veteran, Gascon has spent three decades in the financial services industry. She
began her career working for a large national bank in their consumer, mortgage, construction and
commercial lending departments. She later worked at some of the largest credit unions in the
nation, helping to create a business lending department, developing a department infrastructure,
funding a sizeable business loan portfolio as well as overseeing all mortgage, consumer and
collections. Gascon has attained Six Sigma Green Belt certification.
Ray Shams
Bertha Gascon
About Xceed Financial Credit Union
Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Xceed Financial is a full-service, federally chartered notfor-profit workplace credit union that focuses on meeting the needs of businesses and their
employees throughout the United States. With roots going back 85 years, it now has over $1.2
billion in assets under management, nearly 65,000 members, and operates 12 Financial Centers
in five states. Xceed Financial partners with more than 300 employers – also called “select
employer groups” or SEGs – to deliver personal banking, wealth management services, and
financial education to working adults and their families. The Credit Union has a four-star,
excellent rating from BauerFinancial, and was named one of CU Times’ “Best Credit Unions to
Work For” in 2014. Learn more at www.xfcu.org.
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