Robins Financial Credit Union selects first female CEO

Christina O’Brien has been named the new president and CEO of Robins Financial Credit Union in Warner Robins, Ga., making her the first woman in the institution's 66-year history to serve in the role.

She took over as president and CEO on Wednesday after John Rhea retired from the credit union. Rhea had been with Robins Financial for 24 years and served as CEO for 12 years.

O’Brien has worked at the credit union for the last 27 years in a variety of roles, including consumer loan manager, vice president of risk management and most recently, executive vice president.

“My entire career has been dedicated to serving the members and staff of Robins Financial Credit Union,” O’Brien said in a press release. “To say I’m honored and excited for this opportunity would be an understatement.”

Robins serves over 217,000 members across 22 branches and recently crossed the $3 billion asset threshold, according to a press release on Wednesday.

Overall, credit unions have more female leaders than their banking counterparts. But those numbers decline as institutions get larger in size. Only 14.5% of credit unions with at least $1 billion in assets are led by women, according to data from the National Credit Union Administration.

Robins Financial earned roughly $9.4 million in the first quarter, down about 4% from the same period a year earlier, according to call report data from NCUA.