Tom Slefinger
Market Strategist, Alloya Corporate FCU
As Alloya’s Market Strategist, Tom Slefinger leverages nearly 40 years of investment strategy expertise to deliver insightful commentary on the economy and market events to optimize balance sheet performance at the credit union level. With thousands of subscribers, Tom’s daily and weekly publications are widely read amongst credit union executives.
Prior to becoming the corporate’s Market Strategist, Tom served as the Senior Vice President of Institutional Fixed Income Sales at Alloya Investment Services, a division of Alloya Solutions, LLC. In this role, Tom developed and managed operations associated with institutional fixed income sales in addition to developing investment portfolio strategies, identifying appropriate sectors and securities, and optimizing portfolio performance at the credit union level.
Tom holds a B.S. in business administration from the University of Maine. In addition, he holds a Series 7 and 63 through ISI.
Steven Rick
Director, Chief Economist, TruStage™
Steven Rick is the director and chief economist at TruStage™. His primary responsibilities include conducting strategic research, analysis and forecasting of the financial services industry, with special emphasis on the consumer and credit union markets.
Steven’s forecasts serve as a starting point for the strategic planning process and help to create a clear understanding of the underlying trends and links between the general economy, the financial services industry and the company’s policy owners.
Steven publishes the Credit Union Trends Report, a monthly “pulse check” on the economic state of the credit union movement. He has also authored a textbook on asset-liability management for credit union executives.
Before joining TruStage™, Steven was the senior economist for CUNA & Affiliates’ economics and statistics department for 22 years. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the University of Wisconsin Credit Union, a $5 billion financial institution.
Steven holds a senior lecturer position with the economics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches money and banking, and macroeconomics courses. He is also the facilitator and instructor for CUNA Management School’s Stanford Bank Game, a computerized bank simulation, and has two years of experience as a bank simulation advisor for the Prochnow Graduate School of Banking.
Steven has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Moorhead State University, a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Moorhead University and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also obtained a PhD in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
