ValleyStar Credit Union will partner with Virginia Tech as a capstone sponsor for the Pamplin College of Business’ Center for Business Analytics (CBA). The team will build a data-based enterprise risk management (ERM) framework to strengthen alignment of all ValleyStar teams. It’s a project that will benefit the security of credit union members, making
this one more example of how ValleyStar lives its mission: “Employees First. Members Benefit.”

An ERM is a coordinated approach to identify, minimize and address an organization’s risk. An ERM process allows the credit union to locate any organizational challenges and provide insight on how to effectively prioritize and manage the risks at hand.

The capstone agreement brings together a diverse group of graduate students with different career
backgrounds and experiences, to help ValleyStar enhance a holistic, data-driven system to reinforce
security and stay ahead of any risk that could enter the financial ecosystem as the credit union
evolves and moves toward the future.

“This is just one more way for ValleyStar Credit Union to strengthen the knowledge and expertise of
it’s employees in order to benefit credit union members. ValleyStar Credit Union gains the diversity
of knowledge that comes from a team of graduate students with such backgrounds as finance,
business and journalism,” said Robert Sparrow, chief risk officer at ValleyStar Credit Union. “The
students gain the real world experience of building data-driven methodologies in real-life
applications. In the end ValleyStar members will benefit from the increased efficiency and
effectiveness of credit union operations.”

ValleyStar will work alongside the CBA program students to work with the ValleyStar risk and
compliance team to take a critical look at the data used in the credit union’s current ERM program
while focusing on the ValleyStar’s strategic drivers to become the best in service and convenience.