2020 Board Nomination Bio

Ashana has served on the board of Luminus Financial for the last 3 years and is seeking re-election. She also actively contributes on both the Audit and HR/Compensation committees. She is proud of the team’s achievements over the last couple of years and is thrilled to be a part of the stewardship towards increasing financial strength, achieving the cleanest audit in the last 6 years and a renewed focus on people for sustainable success. Her academic background coupled with over 27 years of financial services experience both strategically and operationally provide alignment and value.

Ashana has a degree in Economics from Western University and has completed post-graduate programs in both HR management and sales management at Ryerson and Queen’s University, respectively. She demonstrated that she is committed to ongoing professional development and networking to serve the needs of the credit union. She has completed all 29 required “board 360” courses with an average of 98% and received her CUDA Level A certificate.

Ashana’s years of financial services experience spans both retail and strategic roles in both a large bank and credit union environments (TD Canada Trust, Alterna Savings and DUCA Financial). Understanding the day-to-day barriers faced by credit union members, employees, and management, as well as strategic planning were critical to ensuring success in the increasingly competitive and complex regulatory environment. Ashana played a key role in shaping the strategy and marketing focus at Metro Credit Union which led to its most profitable year ever and set the organization on a path towards becoming Alterna Savings. At Alterna Savings, as part of the leadership, she collaborated with staff and members to define the strategic direction and culture which helped to lead the organization’s success. In the role of Director of Operations, she led over 150 staff in the GTA in the areas of leadership, member service, financial results, risk mitigation and audit.

Her true passion was revealed when she left the bank to join the credit union system Ashana found her niche working with community-based organizations that wanted to make a difference in the world. She has been committed to many volunteer organizations and held positions as the President of WICSA, a large university student group at Western University, on the board at The Riverdale Community Development Corporation while also serving on their Audit, Loans Committee, HR and Nominations committee and as the Treasurer for the LCRA. She currently volunteers on two school boards and regularly gives her time running mindfulness workshops for those suffering with stress and anxiety.

In her current roles as Director of Operations at Catalytic Real Estate Ltd, and working as a professional coach, she leverages her decades of experience while staying current within the financial services industry.

The credit union values are ones that she shares, and the opportunity to continue to support Luminus in becoming stronger is a mission of which she is immensely passionate about.

Ashana is seeking your support for re-election to continue to support the staff and members.