Caldwell Recruits Chief Product and Innovation Officer for Beem Credit Union
March 5, 2025 – Toronto-based Caldwell has helped to recruit Oscar Roque as the new chief product and innovation officer of Beem Credit Union in British Columbia. The search was led by Drew Railton, Dinkar Farwaha, and Les Gombik. He brings a wealth of experience and a visionary approach to the organization as Beem grows its footprint and digital services across the province. “We are excited to welcome Oscar to our leadership team,” said Brian Harris, CEO of Beem. “His experience and innovative mindset will be invaluable as we continue to drive forward our mission of combining the trust and 80-year history of our founding credit unions with innovation and ease of a fintech.”
In this role, Mr. Roque will grow and build upon the strong foundation laid by Sue Britton, who will be retiring this year. “Sue’s work building Beem and leading our innovation initiatives has created the platform for Oscar to now propel our people first and digital first strategy,” said Mr. Harris.
Mr. Roque brings with him a professional background in leading transformative initiatives in financial services organizations such as Interac and BMO, and a passion for driving digital innovation. He previously served as the vice president of strategy, trends, and emerging solutions at Interac Corp., where he led enterprise strategy and innovation partnerships. His responsibilities include identifying and exploring new technologies and opportunities in areas such as consumer-directed finance, digital payments, blockchain, and fintech.
With over 15 years of experience, Mr. Roque has successfully brought new innovations to market and led teams in strategy, product management, and delivery across various industries, including financial services, banking, telecommunications, and technology services. He has spoken at numerous high-profile international conferences, such as Collision, Elevate, IBM Think, and SIBOS
“The part that excites me the most is being part of the amazing journey in shaping Beem to achieve its bold vision and drive positive impact on the financial well-being of our members and our communities,” said Mr. Roque. Roque’s vision for his contribution to Beem Credit Union is bright, and ambitious. “The changing needs of our members coupled with the pace of technology continues to evolve in the financial sector,” he said. “We are going to break new ground together and create better ways to manage cash flow, save money and buy smarter.”
Beem is a new credit union with a history that extends back more than eight decades, when its founding credit unions were formed. Beem is one of BC’s largest provincially regulated credit unions, supporting the financial wellness of 193,000 members from 66 branches across the province with $17 billion in assets.
Mr. Railton is a managing partner in Western Canada. Drawing on more than 18 years of experience placing senior executives and board directors, he provides expertise in board, CEO, and senior executive recruitment. Mr. Railton has experience as a director, serving on both volunteer and corporate boards, as well as extensive philanthropic involvement. Prior to joining Caldwell in 2006, Mr. Railton’s career spanned a wide range of industries and functions including roles in operations, sales, human resources, customer service, and general management.
Mr. Farwaha is a consultant in the Toronto office and a member of the financial services and data, digital and technology practices. He joined Caldwell from Russell Reynolds Associates, where he helped in identifying executive talent across sectors including financial services, technology, telco, consumer, and industrial products and services. Mr. Farwaha has completed searches for chief digital officers, chief customer experience officers, chief information security officers, heads of payments, board directors and cross-functional searches for C-Suite leaders for financial institutions in North America.
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Mr. Gombik is managing partner of Caldwell’s Prairie region. With more than 25 years of executive and board search and human resources experience, he has a broad perspective on the most pressing talent issues in executive management today. His particular focus is on board and senior executive positions for commercially oriented, public, private, and private equity-backed enterprises within the industrial, consumer, and financial services sectors.
Recent Search
Carlos Cata and Anna Power of Caldwell recently assisted in the recruitment of Arielle Gross Samuel as chief marketing and communications officer of General Catalyst. She succeeded Jennifer Zimmerman, who will remain as a consultant with the company. “Arielle’s rich experience across both technology and finance brings to the forefront the impact these sectors have on our world, and we’re looking forward to her leading this story as General Catalyst evolves and expands,” said Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst.
Ms. Samuels comes to General Catalyst from Blackstone, where she was global head of marketing. In this role, she led the alternative asset manager’s marketing efforts, including the company’s first major advertising campaign and the creation of its brand platform, “Build with Blackstone.” Prior to Blackstone, Ms. Samuels spent nine years at Meta Platforms, where she held numerous positions in marketing and product operations and departed as the company’s global head of environmental, social and corporate-governance business.
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage and transformational investments. The firm aims to back entrepreneurs who are building innovative technology companies and market leading businesses, including Stripe, Airbnb, HubSpot, Loom, BigCommerce, ClassPass, Datalogix, Datto, Demandware, Gusto, The Honest Company, KAYAK, Oscar, Snap, and Warby Parker. The General Catalyst team leverages its broad experience to help founders build extraordinary companies. The firm has offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, Berlin, Bangalore, and Cambridge.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
