Finance/Insurance: CHRISTOPHER M. ‘CHRIS’ SHOCKLEY

Shockley launched his banking career working as a teller while still an economics student at Radford University. The Roanoke native ultimately spent 14 years in retail banking in Virginia and North Carolina before joining Virginia Credit Union in 2003 as senior vice president of member services.

Receiving an MBA from Liberty University in 2012, Shockley was named VACU’s president in 2016. In March, the credit union reported total assets just above $5 billion. It has more than 310,000 members and over 700 employees. In August, the credit union lost its bid to add 10,000 Medical Society of Virginia members, following a ruling by the State Corporation Commission.

Shockley sits on the board of PSCU, the nation’s largest credit union service organization. He also chairs the Virginia Council on Economic Education board and is treasurer and chair-elect for the YMCA of Greater Richmond. Shockley is also a trustee of the Virginia-West Virginia chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. That’s a more personal endeavor; Shockley lost his sister to the disease.

More than 65,000 individuals participated in VACU’s financial education programs in 2021. In December, VACU donated copies of “The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money” to 1,880 preschoolers in Richmond.