DEPTFORD TWP. — After 40 years of service leading the staff and members of South Jersey Federal Credit Union, Benjamin T. Griffith, president/CEO of SJFCU, will retire in April 2015.
After a national search for Griffith’s replacement, Rahul Kachru, who most recently was Chief Operating Officer at Long Beach City Employees Federal Credit Union in Long Beach, Calif., will join SJFCU in mid-January.
Griffith will stay on in a consultant capacity to aid in the organization’s transition to its new chief executive officer.
“Rahul Kachru has 19 years of financial services experience in branch administration, lending, operations, turnarounds, and strategy development,” said Griffith. “In addition, he has experience in business development and community involvement, and a comprehensive technical background.”
Griffith has led SJFCU since 1974. During those four decades, Griffith has overseen the credit union’s growth from an organization with 1,500 members to today’s SJFCU with a membership base of more than 45,500 individuals throughout South Jersey. SJFCU is currently the largest credit union in South Jersey, and among the top 10 in New Jersey, based on its assets, currently more than $335 million. SJFCU has evolved from a single office in the City of Camden to six branch locations in Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, Cumberland and Atlantic counties.
Active in the South Jersey community, Griffith serves as treasurer of the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce; he is also a past chairman of the chamber. Griffith is a member of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Gloucester County and served on the Board of Trustees of the Southern New Jersey Development Council. Griffith also served as a trustee of the City of Pleasantville’s Urban Enterprise Zone. He is a past chairman and current member of the Deptford Township Business Advisory Committee, and is a past member and chairman of the New Jersey Credit Union League. Griffith has also served as a director of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). Among the numerous awards he has received are the “Distinguished Citizen of the Year” award for Gloucester County from the Southern New Jersey Council (now Garden State Council), Boy Scouts of America, the Camden Children’s Garden’s “Champion of Children” award, and the Volunteer Leadership Award of the United Way of Gloucester County.
Kachru,of Signal Hill, Calif., comes on board with an extensive background in credit union, banking and financial institutions. He has previously served as a senior member of the executive team at credit unions in New Jersey, Nevada and California. His leadership helped the credit unions to grow financially as well as within the larger communities. Previously, as a Director of Lending, he was instrumental in building the lending department of a startup financial institution in Las Vegas, Nev. Kachru holds a degree in economics with a minor in statistics from the University of Texas at Austin. He started his career as a global management trainee with HSBC and rose to Director of Retail Sales and Operations within nine years. Kachru is also a Six Sigma certified brown belt holder.
South Jersey Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Deptford, New Jersey, is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned and governed by its more than 45,500 members. For more information, visit www.SouthJerseyFCU.com.
