Richard Thomas, FCG, P.Adm., Acc.Dir.

Richard Thomas is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.  He holds a Master’s of Public Administration degree from the University of Victoria (Victoria, B.C.)  For the majority of his career, he served as the Senior Vice-President, Government Relations and Corporate Secretary of B.C. Central Credit Union, now Central 1 Credit Union, in Vancouver, B.C.  B.C. Central was the central liquidity facility, services corporation, and trade association of credit unions in B.C. and, post-2008, Ontario.  He was responsible for board and shareholder relations, government relations, legal services, and regulatory compliance, risk management, and insurance, and operational policies and procedures. He retired from Central 1 in 2013.

He is both a P. Adm. and an Acc. Dir.  He has served on the Board of the Chartered Governance Institute of British Columbia, as it is now, since 2014.

He is a past President of the Graduate Students’ Society, University of Victoria and a founding director of UVic’s School of Public Administration Students’ Society. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from UVic, he served as a branch accountant with the Bank of Nova Scotia.  Thereafter, he served as a research officer and policy analyst with provincial government ministries in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, before joining the credit union system in 1980.

He is currently the Chairperson of the board of directors of Greater Vancouver Community Credit Union, a board on which he has served since 2015.  He also served as a director of the Unclaimed Property Society of British Columbia for six years, four years as a director of the B.C. Lottery Corporation and thirteen years on the advisory board of the B.C. Institute of Co-operative Studies.

He served as a Director, President and CEO, of CUPP Services Ltd., a captive insurance company and as a director of Central 1 Trust Company. He also served on several Governance Task Forces of The CUMIS Insurance Group Ltd. and on a Governance Task Force of Credit Union Central of Canada.  He has presented on capital and governance at meetings of Credit Union Central of B.C., Credit Union Central of Ontario Ltd., Credit Union Central of Canada, the Canadian Co-operative Association, the World Council of Credit Unions and numerous credit union board planning sessions.