Jim Vilker
Since joining the credit union industry in 1985, Jim Vilker has been a strong advocate of managing and educating staff in compliance and audit functions He launched his career as an examiner where he gained knowledge and depth of insight into regulatory compliance requirements of credit unions. Jim studied a broad scope of business and operational procedures leading to a deep understanding of best practices significant to credit union audit activities. Over the next eight years Jim was actively entrenched in the business as Executive Vice President of a credit union.
Jim has earned his NCCO certification through specialization in the field of auditing and compliance. His software product of choice serving as the compliance and auditing tool, was the forerunner of the current CU*BASE. Jim’s tenure at CU*Answers began in 1998 where his knowledge and skills were immediately recognized as the CUSO’s resident advisor on regulatory compliance and audit functions. Jim has been instrumental in developing the strategic Audit Link business, educating clients through an online Advisor newsletter and designing premier training plans for clients of Audit Link and internal staff of CU*Answers’ credit unions. His experience in working with clients and CU*BASE tools uniquely qualifies him to write and instruct in the monitoring of regulated activities.
Patrick Sickels
Patrick Sickels began his career as an attorney, and quickly branched out into thetechnological services industry, where he used his legal skills to help companies manage their compliance requirements. Patrick used these skills to develop into a classically trained auditor and risk manager. At CU*Answers, Patrick’s background of law and technology make him uniquely suited to assist credit union clients in managing their risk requirements with a minimum of cost.
Patrick is a licensed Certification Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and has the Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) designation. Patrick has done extensive work in designing risk models and control frameworks for a vast array of commercial, manufacturing, and financial firms. Patrick’s specialty is the design of compliance models which meet legal standards at the lowest possible cost for the organization.
